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STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL, 

\   •<:  Anieles  Cat 


STATE  NORMAL  SCHOOL.  ^  ^/ 

Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

GLEANINGS  OF  PAST  YEARS, 

1843-78. 


BY  THE  RIGHT  HON. 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE,  M.P. 


Vol.  I. 

THE  THRONE,  AND  THE  PRINCE  CONSORT; 
THE  CABINET,  AND  CONSTITUTION. 


NEW   YORK: 
CHARLES     SCRIBNER'S     SONS, 

743    AND    745    BUOADWAY. 


58  I 


GLEANINGS  OF  PAST  YEAKS, 

1875-8. 


BY  THE  RIGHT  HON. 

W.  E.  GLADSTONE,  M.P. 


THE  THRONE,  AND  THE  PEINCE  CONSORT; 
THE  CABINET,  AND  CONSTITUTION. 


NEW  YORK: 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S     SONS, 

713   AND   T-J5  Eroauway. 


PREFACE. 


These  occasional  productions  extend  over  the  long  terra 
of  thirty-six  years :  years  eminently  anxious,  prolific, 
and  changeful. 

No  attempt  has  heen  made  to  bring  compositions,  sug- 
gested in  various  degrees  by  the  time  as  -well  as  by  the 
subject,  into  the  precise  forms  of  thought  or  expression, 
which  at  this  date  I  might  have  been  inclined  to  choose 
for  them.  Such  an  effort,  in  impairing  their  identity, 
would  abate  the  limited  interest  or  value  vrhich  can  alone 
belong  to  them. 

Any  changes  made  have  been  as  follows  : — 

1.  Corrections  of  typographical  errors. 

2.  Verbal  amendments,  with  a  view  to  simplicity  and 

clearness. 

3.  Substitutions,  in  a  very  few  instances,  of  phrases 

which  justcr  taste  might  at  the  time  have  sug- 
gested ;  without  any  alteration  of  the  thought. 

4.  Cases,  also  very  rare,  in   which  on   any   special 

ground  it   seemed   right  to  specify  a  change, 
smaller  or  greater,  in  opinion. 
These  last  cases  alone  are  of  any  even  the  smallest 


Tl  PREFACE. 

importance;  and,  that  the  reader  may  clearly  perceive 
them,  they  are  dealt  with  in  Notes,  and  the  date  of 
1878  is  attached. 

Essays  of  a  controversial  kind,  whether  in  politics  or 
religion,  and  classical  essays,  are  not  included  in  the 
collection. 

W.  E.  G. 

Hawauden,  Decemher  1878. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

DEATH  OF  THE  PRINCE  CONSORT. 

An  Address  delivered  at  Manchester  on  the  23rd  of  April, 
18G2,  before  the  Association  of  Lancashire  and  Cheshire 
Mechanics'  Institutes. 

PAOB 

1.  Gloom  in  the  district 1 

2.  Sympatliy  witli  Her  Majesty 2 

3-5.  Peculiar  pressm-o  of  Her  bereavement    ....  2 

6-8.  The  Prince  Consort's  full  and  ordered  life  ...  4 

9-11.  His  principle  applicable  to  the  lives  of  all     ...  7 

12-lfi.  The  Association ;  its  examinations    .....  10 

17.  The  older  tests  of  training.      .     .     .-^    .     .     .     .  1* 

18, 19.  Competitive  examination 11 

20-25.  Examination,  how  related  to  the  present  age    .     .  16 

II. 

LIFE  OF  THE  PRINCE  CONSORT— COURT  OF 
QUEEN  VICTORIA.    (Vol.  I.) 

1.  News  of  the  Prince  Consort's  death 23 

2.  Memorials 24 

3.  General  Grey's  Work 25 

4.  Mr.  Helps's  Edition  of  tlie  Speeches       ....  26 

5.  Mr.  Martin's  Life  (Vol.  I.) 27 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

6,  7.  The  early  life 27 

8,  9.  King  Leopold,  his  tutelary  friend 28 

10.  Baron  Stockmar 30 

11.  The  Marriage 32 

12.  Social  and  political  effects 32 

13.  Peculiar  relation  of  the  Koyal  Couple     v     .     .      .  33 

14.  Proposal  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington 34 

15, 16.  The  Prince's  conception  of  his  position  ....  36 

17.  Its  effect  not  local  only 37 

18, 19.  British  Constitutional  King.-hip 37 

20,  21.  Ministerial  crisis  of  183'J 39 

22-5.  Great  influence  of  the  Sovereign 41 

26, 27.  Hierarchical  constitution  of  English  society.      .      .  44 

28.  The  better-known  forms  of  the  Prince's  activity     .  46 

29.  Older  and  modern  forms  of  Kingship     ....  47 

30.  The  Prince's  nationality  of  type 49 

31.  His  precocity 49 

32,  33.  His  Speeches 50 

34-40.  His  mental  attitude  in  Keligion 52 

41,42.  His  piety 58 

44, 45.  The  national  treasure  and  loss 69 

HI. 

LIFE  OF  THE  PKINCE  CONSORT.    (Vol.  IL) 

1-3.  Mr.  Martin  and  his  subject 63 

4.  Growing  estimate  of  the  Prince 65 

5,6.  Tlie  Prince  and  the  Exhibition  of  1 851       ...  66 

7,  8.  The  change  in  the  political  atmospliere  1852-1861  68 
9.  Comparison  with  the  case  of  Mr.  Pitt      ....  70 

10.  Three  forms  of  his  activity 71 

11.  The  attack  in  January  1854 72 

12,  13.  The  Sovereign's  right  to  personal  counsel    ...     ,  72 

14.  Tiio  theory  of  Baron  Stockmar 75 

15-17.  His  historical  misconceptions 76 

18.  His  confusion  of  distinct  characters 79 


CONSENTS. 


IX 


PAGE 

19,  Vigour  of  the  pferogatives  generally 80 

20,  21.  Initintioa  in  grants  of  public  money 81 

22.  The  Crown  Lands ;  the  Army 82 

23.  Occasion  of  the  Baron's  exposition 83 

24,  25.  His  proposed  change  in  the  Kingly  office     ...  84 

26-8.  Effect  on  the  position  of  Minibters 86 

29-32.  The  Prince's  plan  for  the  regulation  of  Public  Wor- 
ship        88 

83.  Education  of  the  Eoyal  Ciiildren 92 

34, 35.  Basis  prepared  by  Slockmar .  93 

36,  37.  The  Prince  as  a  whole 95 


IV. 
LIFE  OF  THE  PRINCE  CONSORT.    (Vol.  III.) 


1,2.  Martin's  Biography 

3.  Its  tendency  to  widen  into  History    .      . 

4.  Motive  unjustly  imputed 

5.  The  Prince  as  an  authority  on  the  Crimean  Wi 
6, 7.  Historical  policy  in  regard  to  Turkey     . 

8-10.  The  Prince  on  the  motive  of  the  Crimean  War 

11.  In  accordance  with  official  evidence  . 
12-14.  On  the  European  Concert 

15.  Comparison  of  1853-4  with  1875-7    .      .      . 

16.  Integrity  and  independence  of  Turkey  .     . 
17, 18.  The  Royal  and  popular  view  of  the  terras  of  P 

19.  The  Crimean  War  attained  its  immediate  end 
20-2.  Failure  of  reform  in  Turkey   .... 
23, 24.  Altered  tone  of  the  public  mind  as  to  war 
25,  26.  Increase  of  Blilitary  and  Naval  Estimates 
27,  28.  Failures  not  attributable  to  parsimony   . 
29.  The  Prince's  Memorandum  on  the  Army 
30-2.  Tlie  Court  and  the  Aberdeen  Ministry  .  ■ 

33.  Abortive  issue  of  the  Sebastopol  Inquiry 

34.  Value  of  party  organisation     .... 
36,  37.  Mr.  Martin  and  the  Duuubian  Principalities 

38.  Coucluiiiou 


ir 


caco 


97 
98 
99 
100 
102 
103 
105 
106 
110 
110 
-112 
114 
114 
116 
118 
120 
122 
122 
125 
126 
128 
129 


CONTENTS. 


V. 

THE  COUNTY  FRANCHISE,  AND  MR,  LOWE  THEREON. 

1-3.  Present  relation  of  the  question  to  parties  and  page 

individuals 131 

4.  Its  position  above  the  level  of  party 133 

5-7.  Parliament  before  and  after  the  Reform  Act     ,      .  134 

8, 9.  Presumption  established  for  extension    ....  137 

10.  Supposed  distinction  of  town  and  county     .     ,      .  139 

11.  Comparative  selfishness  of  classes 139 

12.  Passion  in  town  and  country 140 

13.  Element  of  mental  training 141 

14, 15.  Presumption  for  enfranchisement  generally       .     .  142 

16-19.  Objection  from  numerical  snperiority      ....  144 

20.  Argument  for  equality  of  dealing 145 

21-3.  Not  for  equality  of  men  ;  English  love  of  inequality  148 

24-8.  Extension  thus  far  proved  safe 150 

29,30.  Prophecies  of  evil  falsified 154 

31.  Probable  effect  on  parties 156 

32.  Argument  for  going  on  or  back 158 

33, 34.  Faults  admitted  do  not  suffice  to  condenm  exten- 
sion        159 

35.  Danger  of  gerontocracy  and  of  ploutocracy  .      .     .  ]  00 

36-8.  Power  of  the  individual  in  the  modern  State     .      .  161 

39,  40.  Expensiveuess  of  Elections 164 

41.  Exercise  by  the  towns  of  their  function  of  choice    .  165 

42-5.  Prevalence  of  localism 166 

46.  Dread  of  redistribution  of  seats 168 

47.  Against  excessive  eiptctution  from  improvements.  169 


CONTENTS. 


Zl 


VI. 

LAST  WORDS  ON  THE  COUNTY  FRANCHISE. 

PAGE 

1.  Summary  of  arguments  on  tl  10  main  issue     .     .      .  171 

2.  Limitation  of  statements  in  Mr.  Lowe's  Reply  .  .  173 
3-6.  First  presumptive  pleas  for  enfranchisoiueut  .  .  175 
7-9.  Judgments  of  tlie  great  and  the  poor  on  the  public 

questions  of  the  time      . 176 

10.  And  on  Christianity  in  its  early  days     \     .     .     .  180 

11.  The  enlistment  of  this  maximum  of  active  power 

on  behalf  of  the  State 180 

12.  Phantom-objections 182 

13-15.  Plea  that  there  is  now  no  intolerable  evil    .     .     .  li?3 

16.  PJea  of  the  hopeless  minority 184 

17.  Plea  of  tlie  homogeneous  class 185 

18.  Plea  of  the  want  of  demand 186 

19.  America 186 

20.  France 187 

21.  The  claim  to  every  supposition   consistint  with 

possibility 188 

22.  The  two  opposite  views  of  the  suffrage  ■/    .      .     .  18^ 

23.  Article  and  demands  of  Mr.  Arch li)l 

24.  The  charge  of  class-purpose 191 

vn. 

POSTSCRIPTUM  ON  THE  COUNTY  FRANCHISE. 


1.  Coailjutors  in  the  inquiry  .... 

2.  Government  by  the  leisured  classes  i^ 

3.  Subserviency  and  dependence      .     . 

4.  Improving  effect  of  tlie  suffrage    .     , 

5.  The  argument  in  terrorem 

6,  7.  Comiiarativo  liability  or  error. 

8.  Facts  of  superior  judgment  in  the  mass 
9-11.  Rooted  mainly  in  moral  causes     . 


193 
193 
194 
196 
197 
197 
198 
199 


VIII. 
KIN  BEYOND  SEA. 

FAGB 

1.  De  Tocqueville  and  De  Beaumont     .....  203 

2.  Keciprocal  benefactions  of  England  and  America  .  203 

3.  American  development  unexampled 204 

4-6.  Eeaemblances  of  political  habit  between  the  two 

countries 206 

7-9.  Necessary  and  historical  limit  upon  those  resem- 
blances        208 

10.  Early  management  of  the  American  Colonies   -^     .  211 

11-13.  Brief  animadversion  on  America 212 

14-16.  The  peaceful  trophies  since  the  Civil  War  .     .     .  214 

17,  18.  Some  comparative  disadvantages  of  ours.      .      .      .  216 
19-24.  Formation   of    the  central    power    in    the   two 

countries 219 

25, 26.  The  Fourth  Power  in  the  United  Kingdom  .     .      .  223 

27, 28.  Seats  of  Ministers  in  Parliament 224 

29.  The  Crown,  how  guarded   .' 226 

30.  Its  prerogatives 227 

31-3.  Constitutional  Kingsliip     , 228 

34.  The  Sovereign's  dismissal  of  Ministers    ....  230 

35,  36.  Other  power  and  influence  of  the  Sovereign .     .     .  232 

37.  The  Sovereign  and  the  Crown 234 

38.  Tlie  Sovereign  and  the  Ministers 235 

39-41.  The  first  power  of  the  State 236 

42, 43.  Gradual  formation  of  the  Cabimt     v     .     ..     .     .  238 

44-50.  Tlio  Prime  Mini.^tur  and  his  cullcagues  .^.      .      .  240 

51.  Anomalies  of  the  Constitution 244 

52,  53.  Its  subtle  changes  by  time 246 

54.  How  related  to  the  national  chni  actor    .      .      .     .  247 

55,  56.  Conclusiou ,»..217 


DEATH  or  THE  prince  consort. 

AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT  MANCHESTER  ON  THE  23UD  OF  APRIL, 
1862,  BEFORE  THE  ASSOCIATION  OF  LANCASHIRE  AND  CHESHIRE 
mechanics'    INSTITUTES.* 


1.  Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — Although  the  duty  in  which 
we  liave  just  been  engaged  is  a  cheerful  one,  the  season 
at  which  I  come  among  you  is,  hut  too  notoriously,  a 
season  of  gloom  in  the  district,  and  even  in  the  city.  In 
this  busy  region,  all  the  forms  of  liuman  industry  are 
grouped  around  one  central  stock,  which  gives  them  their 
vitality ;  and  they  droop  and  come  near  to  dying  when,  as 
now,  the  great  cotton  harvest  is  no  longer  wafted  over  the 
Atlantic  to  employ  and  feed  tlie  people.  If  the  positive 
signs  of  distress  do  not  glare  in  your  streets,  it  is,  I  appre- 
liend,  because  the  manly  and  independent  character  of  the 
Lancashire  workman  makes  him  unwilling  to  parade,  or 
even  to  disclose,  his  sufferings  before  his  fellow-men. 
None  can  doubt  the  existence  of  a  torpor  scarcely  ever 
equalled  in  its  intensity,  and  wholly  without  parallel  in 
its  cause.     At  points  of  the  horizon  in  these  counties,  the 


*  Published  in  1862.  This  Address  was  delivered  shortly  after  the 
death  of  the  Prince  Consort;  and  during  the  pressure  of  the  Cotton- 
famine. 

1.  B 


2  ADDRESS   AT   MANCHESTER. 

eye  suggests  regret  even  for  the  un^yonted  thinness  of 
the  canopy  of  smoke,  which  bears  witness  to  the  partial 
slumber  of  the  giant  forces  enlisted  in  your  ordinary 
service.  Earely  ^Wthin  living  memory  has  so  much  of 
skill  lain  barren,  so  much  of  willing  strength  been  smitten 
as  Avith  palsy ;  or  has  so  much  of  poverty  and  want  forced 
its  way  into  homes  that  had  long  been  wont  to  smile  with 
comfoi-t  and  abundance.  Nor  is  the  promise  of  to-morrow 
a  compensation  for  the  pressure  of  to-day.  On  the  con- 
trary, if  the  present  be  dark,  the  signs  of  the  immediate 
future  may  seem  darker  still. 

2.  In  times  like  these  the  human  mind,  and  still  more 
the  human  heart,  searches  all  around  for  consolation 
and  suppoi-t.  Of  that  support  one  kind  is  to  be  found  in 
observing  that  trials  the  most  severe  and  piercing  are 
the  lot  not  of  one  station  only  but  of  all.  And  perhaps  in 
tlie  wise  counsels  of  ProAddence  it  Avas  decreed  that  that 
crushing  sorrow  which  came  down  as  sudden  as  the  hur- 
ricane, scarcely  yet  four  months  ago,  upon  the  august  head 
of  our  Sovereign,  should  serve,  among  other  uses,  that  of 
teaching  and  helping  her  subjects  to  bear  up  under 
the  sense  of  atiliction  and  desolation,  and  should  exhibit 
by  conspicuous  example  the  need  and  the  duty  both  of 
mutual  sympathy  and  mutual  help.  In  many  a  humble 
cottage,  darkened  by  the  calamity  of  the  past  winter,  the 
mourning  inhabitants  may  have  checked  their  OAvn  im])a- 
ticnce  by  relleeting  that,  in  the  ancient  I'alace  of  our 
Kings,  a  Woman's  heart  lay  bleeding;  and  that  to  the 
supreme  place  in  birth,  in  station,  in  splendour,  and  in 
po\\'er,  Avas  noAV  added  another  and  sadder  title  of  pre- 
eminence in  grief. 

3.  For  perhaps  no  shai-por  stroke  over  cut  human  Ha-cs 
asunder  than  that  which  in  December  last  parted,  so  far 


DEATH    OF   XnK    PRIXCE    CONSORT.  3 

as  this  world  of  sense  is  concerned,  the  lives  of  the  Queen 
of  England  and  of  her  chosen  Consort.  It  had  been  obvious 
to  us  all,  though  necessarily  in  different  degrees,  that 
tliey  were  blest  with  the  possession  of  the  secret  of  recon- 
ciling the  discharge  of  incessant  and  wearing  public  duty 
with  the  culti\ation  of  the  inner  and  domestic  life.  The 
attachment  that  binds  together  wife  and  husband  was 
known  to  be  in  their  case,  and  to  have  been  from  the  first, 
of  an  unusual  force.  Through  more  than  twenty  years, 
whith  flowed  past  like  one  long  unclouded  summer  day, 
that  attachment  was  cherished,  exercised,  and  strengthened 
by  all  the  forms  of  family  interest,  by  all  the  associated 
pursuits  of  highly  cxiltivated  minds,  by  all  the  cares  and 
responsibilities  which  suiTound  the  Throne,  and  which  the 
Prince  was  called,  in  his  own  sphere,  both  to  alleviate  and 
to  share.  On  the  one  side,  such  love  is  rare,  even  in  the 
annals  of  the  love  of  woman ;  on  the  other,  such  ser^'ice 
can  hardly  find  a  parallel,  for  it  is  hard  to  know  how  a 
husband  could  render  it  to  a  wife,  unless  that  wife  were 
also  Queen. 

4.  So,  then.  She,  whom  you  have  seen  in  your  streets  a 
source  of  joy  to  you  all,  and  herself  drinking  in  with 
cordial  warmth  the  sights  and  the  sounds  of  your  enthu- 
siastic loyalty,  is  now  to  be  thought  of  as  the  fijrst  of 
English  widows,  lonely  in  proportion  to  her  elevation  and 
her  cares.  Nor  let  it  be  thought  that  those  who  are 
never  called  to  suffer  in  respect  to  bochly  wants  therefore 
do  not  suffer  sharply.  Whereas,  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
well  established,  not  only  that  though  the  form  of  sorrow 
may  be  changed  with  a  change  in  the  sphere  of  life,  the 
essence  and  power  of  it  remain,  but  also  that,  as  that 
splieie  enlarges,  the  capacity  of  suffering  deejjens  along 
^\■ith  it,  no  less  than  the  opportunities  of  enjoyment  ai'o 

13   2 


4  ADBEESS   AT   MANCHESTER. 

multiplied.  Tlierefore  all  the  land,  made  aware,  througli 
the  transparent  manner  of  it,  what  was  the  true  character 
of  her  life,  has  acknowledged  in  the  Queen  not  only  a  true, 
but  a  signally  afflicted  mourner.  And  rely  upon  it  that, 
even  in  the  midst  of  desolation,  she  is  conscious  of  our 
sympathy,  and  has  thrilled  more  deeply  to  the  signs  of 
her  people's  grief  on  her  behalf  than  ever,  in  other  days, 
to  their  loudest  and  most  heart-stirring  acclamations. 

5.  And  you,  my  friends,  such  of  you  in  particular  as 
have  felt  by  your  firesides  the  touch  of  this  most  tiying 
time  :  if  perchance  many  among  you,  turning  in  the  day  of 
need  and  trouble  to  the  Father  of  all  Mercies,  have  mingled 
with  your  prayers  for  your  own  relief  another  prayer,  that 
She  may  be  consoled  in  her  sorrow  and  strengthened  for 
her  work  during  what  we  hope  will  be  the  long  remainder 
of  her  days,  that  loyal  prayer  will  come  back  vnth  bless- 
ing into  your  OAvn  bosom,  and  in  the  effort  to  obtain  com- 
fort for  another  you  will  surely  be  comforted  yourselves. 

6.  If  the  mourning  of  the  nation  for  the  Prince  Consort's 
death  was  universal,  yet  within  certain  precincts  it  was 
also  special.  One  of  those  precincts  surely  must  have 
been  the  Association  to  promote  Avhose  purposes  we  are 
gathered  here  to-night.  You  had  iu  him  a  Head ;  and  a 
Head  standing  towards  you  in  no  merely  titular  relation, 
but  one  Avho,  as  his  manner  was,  gave  reality  to  every 
attribute  of  his  station,  and,  in  lending  you  his  name,  im- 
parted to  you  freely  of  his  thought  and  care  to  boot.  His 
comprehensive  gaze  ranged  to  and  fro  between  the  ba.se 
and  the  summit  of  society,  and  examined  the  interior 
forces  by  which  it  is  kept  at  once  in  balance  and  in 
motion.  In  his  well-ordered  life  there  seemed  to  be  room 
for  all  things — for  every  manly  exercise,  for  the  study 
and  practice  of  art,  for  the  exacting  cares  of  a  splendid 


DEATH    OF   THE    TRTNCE    CONSORT.  5 

Court,  for  minute  attention  to  every  domestic  and  patcmal 
duty,  for  advice  and  aid  towards  the  discharge  of  public 
business  in  its  innumerable  forms,  and  for  meeting  the  volnn- 
taiy  calls  of  an  active  philanthropy  :  one  day  in  considering 
the  best  form  for  the  dwellings  of  the  people ;  another 
day  in  bringing  his  just  and  gentle  uifluence  to  bear  on 
the  relations  of  master  and  domestic  servant ;  another  in 
suggesting  and  supplying  the  means  of  cultui'c  for  the 
most  numerous  classes;  another  in  some  good  work  of 
almsgi\dng  or  religion.  Nor  was  it  a  merely  external 
activity  which  he  displayed.  His  mind,  it  is  c^adcnt,  was 
too  deeply  earnest  to  be  satisfied  in  anything,  smaller  or 
greater,  with  resting  on  the  surface.  With  a  strong  grasp 
on  practical  life  in  all  its  forms,  he  united  a  habit  of 
thought  eminently  philosophic;  ever  referring  facts  to 
their  causes,  and  pursuing  action  to  its  consequences. 
Gone  though  he  be  from  among  us,  he,  like  other  worthies 
of  mankind  who  have  preceded  him,  is  not  altogether 
gone ;  for,  in  the  woi'ds  of  the  poet — 

'*  Yonr  heads  must  come 
To  the  coUl  tomb ; 
Only  the  actions  of  tlie  jnst 
Smell  sweet  and  blossom  in  their  dnst."* 

So  he  has  left  for  all  men,  in  all  classes,  many  a  useful 
lesson,  to  be  learnt  from  the  record  of  his  life  and 
character. 

7.  For  example,  it  would,  I  believe,  be  difficult  to  find 
anywhere  a  model  of  a  life  more  highly  organised,  more 
thoroughly  and  compactly  ordered.  Here  in  Manchester, 
if  anywhere  in  the  Avorld,  you  know  what  order  is,  and 
what  a  power  it  holds.     Here  we  sec  at  work  the  vast 

*  Shirley,  '  Ajax  and  Ulysses,'  Sccue  ill. 


b  ADDRESS    AT   MANCHESTER. 

systems  of  machinery,  where  ten  thousand  instruments  are 
ever  laLouring,  each  in  its  own  proper  place,  each  with  its 
own  proper  duty,  but  all  obedient  to  one  law,  and  all  co- 
operating for  one  end.  Scarcely  in  one  of  those  your  own 
great  establishments  are  the  principles  of  order  and  its 
power  more  vividly  exemplified,  than  they  were  in  the 
mind  and  life  of  the  Prince  Consort.  Now  this  way  of 
excelling  is  one  that  we  all  may  follow.  There  is  not  one 
among  us  all  here  gathered  who  may  not,  if  he  will, 
especially  if  he  be  still  young,  by  the  simple  specific  of 
giving  method  to  his  life,  greatly  increase  its  power  and 
efficacy  for  good. 

8.  But  he  would  be  a  sorry  imitator  of  the  Prince  who 
should  suppose  that  this  process  could  be  satisfactorily 
performed  as  a  mechanical  process,  in  a  presumptuous  or 
in  a  servile  spirit,  and  with  a  view  to  selfish  or  to  worldly 
ends.  A  life  that  is  to  be  active  like  his  ought  to  find 
refi-eshment  even  in  the  midst  of  labours ;  nay,  to  draw 
refreshment  from  them.  But  this  it  cannot  do,  unless  the 
man  can  take  up  the  varied  em]iloymcnts  of  the  world 
with  something  of  a  childlike  freshness.  Pew  are  they 
who  carry  on  with  them  that  childlike  freshness  of  the 
earliest  years  into  after-life.  It  is  that  especial  light  of 
Heaven,  described  by  Wordsworth  in  his  immortal  '  Ode 
on  the  llecollections  of  Childhood '  :  that  light — 


'■a'^ 


"  which  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy," 

which    attends    even   the   youth   upon   his  way;    but  at 
length — 

"  the  Man  perceives  it  die  away, 
And  fade  into  tiie  light  of  common  day." 

Its  radiance  still  plays  about  a  favoured  few  :  they  ore 
those  few  who,   like  the   Trince,   strive  earnestly  to  keep 


DEATH    OF   THE    PRINCE    CONSORT.  7 

themselves  unspotted  from  the  world,  and  are  victors  in 
the  strife. 

9.  In  beseeching,  especially,  the  young  to  studj^  the  ap- 
plication to  their  daily  life  of  that  principle  of  order  which 
hoth  engenders  diligence  and  strength  of  Avill,  and  like- 
wise so  greatly  multiplies  their  power,  I  am  well  assnvc^d 
that  they  will  find  tliis  to  be  not  only  an  intellectual  but 
a  moral  exercise.  Every  real  and  searching  effort  at  si'lf- 
improvemcnt  is  of  itself  a  lesson  of  profound  humility. 
For  we  cannot  move  a  step  without  learning  and  feeling 
the  waywardness,  the  weakness,  the  vacillation  of  our 
movements,  or  without  desiring  to  be  set  up  upon  the 
Rock  that  is  higher  than  ourselves.  Nor,  again,  is  it 
likely  that  the  self-denial  and  self-discipline  which  these 
effoi-ts  undoubtedly  involve  will  often  be  cordially  under- 
gone, except  by  those  who  elevate  and  extend  their  vision 
beyond  the  narrow  scope  of  the  years — be  they  what  wo 
admit  to  be  few,  or  what  we  think  to  be  many — that  are 
prescribed  for  our  career  on  earth.  An  untiring  sense  of 
duty,  an  active  consciousness  of  the  perpetual  presence  of 
Him  Avho  is  its  author  and  its  law,  and  a  lofty  aim  beyond 
the  grave — these  are  the  best  and  most  efficient  parts,  in 
every  sense,  of  that  apparatus  wherewith  we  should  be 
anned,  when  with  full  pnrpose  of  heart  we  address  our- 
selves to  the  life-long  work  of  self-impi'ovement.  And  I 
believe  that  the  lesson  which  I  have  thus,  perhaps  at  once 
too  boldly  and  too  feebly,  presiimed  to  convey  to  you  in 
words,  is  the  very  lesson  which  was  tanght  us  for  twenty 
years,  and  has  been  bequeathed  to  us  for  lasting  memoi'y, 
by  the  Prince  Consort,  in  the  nobler  form  of  action,  in  the 
silent  witness  of  an  earnest,  manful,  and  devoted  life. 

10.  But,  although  this  world  embraces  no  more  than  a 
limited  part  of  our  existence,   and  although  it  is  certain 


8  ADDRESS   AT   MANCHESTER. 

that  we  ought  to  tread  its  floor  with  an  upward  and  not 
Avith  a  downward  eye,  yet  sometimes  a  strong  reaction 
from  the  dominion  of  things  visible  and  carnal  begets  the 
opposite  excess.  A  strain  of  language  may  sometimes  be 
heard  among  us  which,  if  taken  strictly,  would  imj)ly  that 
the  Almighty  had  abandoned  the  earth  and  the  creatures 
He  had  made  ;  or,  at  the  least,  that  if  He  retained  any 
care  at  all  for  some  portion  of  those  creatures  while  con- 
tinuing to  be  inhabitants  of  the  world,  it  was  only  care 
how  to  take  them  out  of  it.  It  is  sometimes  said  that 
this  world  is  a  world  only  of  shadows  and  of  phantoms. 
We  may  safely  reply  that,  whatever  it  is,  a  world  of 
shadows  and  of  phantoms  it  can  never  truly  be  ;  for  by 
shadows  and  by  phantoms  we  mean  vague  existences, 
which  neither  endure  nor  act :  creatures  of  the  moment, 
which  may  touch  the  fancy,  but  which  the  understanding 
does  not  recognise ;  passing  illusions,  without  heralds 
before  them,  without  results  or  traces  after  them.  With 
such  a  description  as  this,  I  say,  our  human  life,  in  what- 
ever state  or  station,  can  never  correspond.  It  may  be 
something  better  than  this ;  it  may  be  something  worse, 
but  this  it  can  never  be.  Our  life  may  be  food  to  us,  or 
may,  if  we  will  have  it  so,  be  poison ;  but  one  or  the 
other  it  must  be.  Whichever  and  whatever  it  is,  beyond 
all  doubt  it  is  eminently  real.  So  surely  as  the  day  and 
the  night  alternately  follow  one  another,  does  every  day 
when  it  yields  to  darkness,  and  every  night  when  it  passes 
into  dawn,  bear  with  it  its  own  tale  of  the  results  which 
it  has  silently  wrought  upon  each  of  lis,  for  e\dl  or  for 
good.  The  day  of  diligence,  duty,  and  devotion  leaves  us 
richer  than  it  found  lis ;  richer  sometimes,  and  even 
commonly,  in  our  circumstances ;  richer  always  in  our- 
selves.    But   the   day    of   aimless   lethargy,    the   day   of 


DEATH    OF   TUV.    PRINCE    CONSORT.  9 

passionate  and  rebellious  disorder,  or  of  a  merely  selfish 
and  perverse  activity,  as  suix'ly  leaves  us  poorer  at  its 
close  than  avc  were  .at  its  beginning.  The  whole  ex- 
perience of  life,  in  small  things  and  in  groat,  what  is  it  ? 
It  is  an  aggregate  of  real  forces,  which  are  always  acting 
upon  us,  we  also  reacting  upon  them.  It  is  in  the  nature 
of  things  impossible  that,  in  their  contact  with  our  plastic 
and  susceptible  natures,  they  should  leave  us  as  we  were  ; 
and  to  deny  the  reality  of  their  daily  and  continual 
influence,  merely  because  we  cannot  register  its  results,  as 
we  note  the  clianges  of  the  l)aronieter,  from  hour  to  hour, 
would  be  just  as  rational  as  to  deny  that  the  sea  acts  upon 
the  beach  because  the  eye  will  not  tell  us  to-morrow  that 
it  is  altered  fi-om  what  it  has  been  to-day.  If  we  fail 
to  measure  the  results  that  are  thus  hourly  wrought  on 
shingle  and  in  sand,  it  is  not  because  those  results  are 
unreal,  but  because  our  ■sasion  is  too  limited  in  its  powers 
to  discern  them.  "WTien,  instead  of  comparing  day  with  day, 
we  compare  century  with  century,  then  we  may  often  find 
that  land  has  become  sea,  and  sea  has  become  land.  Even 
so  we  can  perceive,  at  least  in  our  neighbours — towards 
whom  the  eye  is  more  impartial  and  discerning  than 
towards  ourselves — that,  under  the  steady  pressure  of  the 
experience  of  life,  human  characters  are  continually  being 
determined  for  good  or  CA-il ;  are  developed,  confirmed, 
modified,  altered,  or  undermined.  It  is  tlie  ofiice  of  good 
sense,  no  less  than  of  faith,  to  realise  this  gi-eat  truth 
before  we  see  it,  and  to  live  under  the  conviction,  that  our 
life  from  day  to  day  is  a  true,  poAverful,  and  searching 
discipline,  moulding  us  and  making  us,  Avhethcr  it  be  for 
evil  or  for  good. 

11.  Nor  are  these  real  efPects  wrought  by  unrtnil  instru- 
ments.    Life  and  the  world,  their  interests,  their  careers, 


10  ADDRESS   AT   MAN'CHESTER. 

the  varied  gifts  of  our  nature,  the  traditions  of  our 
forefathers,  the  treasures  of  laws,  institutions,  usages,  of 
languages,  of  literature,  and  of  art ;  all  the  beauty,  glory, 
and  delight  with  which  the  Almighty  Father  has  clothed 
this  earth  for  the  use  and  profit  of  His  children,  and 
which  Evil,  though  it  has  defaced,  has  not  been  able 
utterly  to  destroy;  all  these  are  not  merely  allowable, 
but  ordained  and  appointed  instruments  for  the  training 
of  mankind.  They  are  instruments  true  and  efficient  in 
themselves,  though  without  doubt  auxiliary  and  subor- 
dinate to  that  highest  instrument  of  all  which  God  has 
prepared  to  be  the  means  of  our  recovery  and  final  weal, 
by  the  revelation  of  Himself. 

12.  Thus,  then,  we  arrive  at  a  point  which  plainly  ex- 
hibits the  ennobling  tendencies  and  high  moral  aims  of  an 
institution  such  as  this,  when  it  is  worked  in  the  spirit 
that  alone  befits  our  nature  and  condition. 

Let  me  now  address  to  you  a  few  words  on  a  marked 
feature  of  the  institution— that  feature  with  which  in 
particular  we  are  to-night  concerned — I  mean  its  examina- 
tions, to  which  reference  is  made  in  the  eighth  paragraph 
of  its  printed  list  of  its  objects.  They  evidently  form  not 
only  a  living  and  chief  portion  of  its  practice,  but  also  a 
test  of  its  power  over  the  people  ;  and  it  is  manifest,  from 
the  results  they  have  produced — from  such  results  as  Avith 
our  own  eyes  we  have  witnessed  in  this  hall  to-night — • 
that  they  have  struck  deep  root  in  the  mind  of  the  com- 
munity around  you,  and  are  likely  to  exercise  in  future  a 
material  influence  upon  conduct. 

13.  The  use  of  examinations  in  this  country,  not  alone, 
but  with  honours  and  prizes  variously  attached  to  them, 
as  a  main  stimulus  and  sup])ort  to  mental  cultivatioti,  is 
in  a  veiy  great  degree  peculiar  to  the  present  century. 


DEATH    OF   TnK   PRINCE    CONSOET.  11 

Examination  on  trial,  in  one  form  or  another,  may  he  said 
to  have  constituted,  nearly  from  its  commencement,  the 
basis  of  the  practical  system  of  our  ancient  Universities  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Perhaps  those  Universities  have 
been  the  means  of  commending-  to  the  countiy  the  example 
it  lias  so  largely  followed.  These  examinations  have  ac- 
(juired  progressively  more  and  more  of  "weight  in  our 
famous  ])ublic  schools.  They  now  supply  the  only  pass- 
port to  the  Civil  Service  of  India,  richly  endowed  as  it  is 
Avith  emoluments,  and  heavily  charged  with  duties  and 
responsibilities.  Admission  to  the  Civil  Service  at  home 
had  been  long  the  subject  only  of  a  political  patronage 
wliich  was,  erroneously  as  1  think,  believed  to  be  an 
essential  part  of  the  machinciy  of  the  Constitution,  and 
the  sole  effectual  substitute  for  the  nxder  methods  of 
government  formerly  in  use  by  prerogative  or  force.  But 
it  is  now  in  some  degree  admitted  that  the  privilege  of 
entering  the  Ci\al  Service  of  the  countiy — and,  indeed, 
the  service  of  the  country  generally  ought  to  be  thrown 
open,  as  widely  as  may  be,  to  its  yoiith  at  large.  And 
some  progress  has  been  made,  by  the  method  of  examina- 
tions, both  in  securing  the  State  against  the  intrusion  of 
the  unworthy,  and  in  widening  the  way  of  access  for 
those  who  aspire  to  prove  themselves  worthy  of  the 
honours  and  rewards  of  civil  office.  The  like  engine  of 
competitive  examination  has  been  more  freely  applied  to 
the  highest — I  mean  the  scientific — department  of  the 
army.  At  about  the  same  time  with  the  adoption  of 
these  last-mentioned  improvements,  the  University  of 
Oxford  instituted,  Avith  great  wisdom  and  forethought, 
that  system  of  circuits  for  local  examinations  throughout 
the  country  whicli  nu't  at  once  with  public  acknowledg- 
ment and  approval,  and  Avhich  was  speedily  and  happily 


12  ADDKESS   AT   MANCHESTER. 

imitated  from  one  or  more  other  quarters.  But  none  of 
these  efforts  touched  the  great  masses  of  the  people. 
They  too,  however,  have  been  at  least  pai'tially  reached  by 
the  widening  circles  of  the  movement.  A  proposal  is,  aj 
yon  know,  under  the  consideration  of  Parliament,  which 
aims  at  the  establishment  of  the  principle,  that  the  merit 
of  the  pupils  proved  by  elementary  examination  shall 
henceforth  be,  if  not  the  sole,  yet  the  main  condition  on 
which  the  money  of  the  State,  supplied  by  the  taxes  of 
the  country,  shall  be  dispensed  in  aid  of  primary  schools. 
This,  it  may  be  said,  is  still  prospective.  But  at  least  we 
have,  in  tlie  Association  of  Lancashire  and  Cheshire 
Mechanics'  Institutes,  one  living  proof  of  the  progress 
made,  without  aid  either  from  old  endowment  or  from  the 
public  purse,  by  the  principle  of  examinations,  with  the 
condition  of  competition,  and  with  the  attraction  of  honour 
or  reward.  How  strictly  true  is  this  assertion  must  be 
more  familiarly  known  to  many  among  you  than  to  me. 

14.  I  Avill  not  attempt  to  draw  here,  and  now,  a  full 
picture  of  the  association,  but  will  only  give  in  proof 
of  Avhat  I  have  said  a  very  few  facts  and  figures.  First, 
as  regards  the  general  condition  of  the  district.  We 
find  that  the  involuntary  leisure  forced  on  the  popu- 
lation by  tlie  contraction  of  the  cotton  trade  has  been 
attended  by  a  decrease  of  crime.  In  Blackburn,  for 
instance,  where  the  crisis  is  felt  with  the  utmost  severity, 
the  charges  heard  by  the  borough  magistrates  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  year  1857  were  721  ;  in  the  first 
quarter  of  the  year  1862,  although  the  population  must 
have  grown,  the  charges  were  only  524.  Now,  we  may 
naturally  expect  a  decrease  of  drunkenness  to  accompany 
popular  distress,  because  the  means  of  indulgence  luive 
been  contracted.     But,  on  tlie  other  hand,  we  might  not 


Drvrn  of  tiiJ':  trtxck  consort.  13 

be  greatly  sui-prisod.  if  there  were  a  positive  increase  of 
those  offouces  to  which  men  are  tempted  in  a  prijicipal 
degree  by  want.  Applpug  these  considerations  to  the 
case  of  ihvckbum,  we  find  the  following  results.  The 
charges  other  than  for  drunkenness  in  the  first  quarter 
of  1857  were  464  ;  in  1862  they  were  380.  There  is,  my 
friends,  consolation  in  tliese  facts,  which  I  hope  will  long 
sur^•ive  the  painful  occasion  that  has  brought  them  into 
view. 

15.  It  also  appears  from  the  returns,  that,  speaking 
generally,  while  ciime  has  decreased,  the  attendance 
upon  classes,  and  the  use  of  the  means  of  mental  culture, 
have  increased.  Now,  my  friends,  there  are  beautiful 
and  famous  passages  in  ancient  writers,  where  statesmen 
and  orators  describe  the  refreshment  with  which  literature 
had  supplied  them,  amid  the  cares  of  life  and  the  pressure 
of  public  affairs.  AVithout  any  disparagement  to  such 
representations,  it  is  a  far  more  touching  piclure  to  behold 
the  labouring  man,  shut  out  by  no  fault  of  his  own 
fi'om  the  occiipation  that  gives  him  bread,  yet  uncon- 
quered  in  spirit  and  resource,  and  turning  to  account 
his  vacant  hcjurs  in  pursuits  which  strengthen  and  enlarge 
the  faculties  of  his  niiud. 

16.  It  would,  however,  be  unjust  to  set  down  to  the 
credit  of  this  Association,  or  of  those  institutes  which  it 
binds  together,  more  than  a  modest  share  in  the  general 
improvement  of  your  social  state.  But  let  us  observe 
more  closely  their  actual  progress.  The  members,  formerly 
2000,  are  now  from  6000  to  8000.  Four  years  ago,  500 
persons  passed  the  preliminary  examinations ;  this  year 
there  are  1500.  Four  years  ago,  214  passed  the  public 
and  final  examination  ;  this  year  there  are  730.  What 
is  more  remarkable  than  all  the  rest  is  the  fact   that, 


14  ADDRESS    AT    MAN-CHESTKR. 

of  1 80  persons  who  have  to-night  received  honours  and 
certificates,  the  number  who  draw  their  subsistence  from 
weekly  wages  is  no  less  than  177.  Two  of  these  are 
wholly  unemployed ;  83,  between  men  and  women,  are 
weavers;  fully  150  appear  to  belong,  in  the  very  strictest 
sense,  to  the  labouring  class.  Again  I  say,  here  are  the 
signs,  for  that  class  especially,  of  hope  and  real  progress ; 
of  hope  which  will,  I  trust,  bear  its  fi'uit,  and  abide 
with  them  when  ripened  into  certainty,  long  after  the 
clouds  of  the  present  visitation  shall,  if  it  please  God, 
have  passed  away. 

17.  I  have  said  to  you,  my  friends,  that  the  extended  use 
of  the  instrument  of  examinations  is  eminently  character- 
istic of  the  age  in  which  we  live.  I  would  almost  ventui^e 
to  say  that,  amid  all  the  material  and  all  the  social  changes 
by  which  the  period  has  been  distinguished,  there  have 
been  few  that  are  greater  or  more  peculiar  than  this. 
Tlie  older  methods  of  education,  which  had  been  in  use  in 
European  countries,  generally  invited  from  students,  with 
more  or  less  of  strictness,  voluntary  performances,  which 
were  intended  to  afford  general  evidence  of  competency ; 
and  which,  where  they  were  regularly  exacted,  were  made 
conditions  of  the  certificates  of  proficiency  given  by  Uni- 
versities and  other  learned  bodies,  and  by  them  called 
Degrees.  These  exercises  and  exhibitions  were  the  in- 
vention of  remote  ages,  and  were  in  all  probability  well 
adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  those  periods.  Eut  in  the 
time  of  your  immediate  ancestors  they  had  become  gener-. 
ally  and  even  grossly  ineffective  ;  and  the  instinct,  so  to 
speak,  of  the  present  age  has  prompted  it,  instead  of 
reviving  the  ancient  forms  which  had  died  out,  to  have 
recourse  to  the  new  method  of  examinations. 

18.  These    examinations    are   in    a   great   number   of 


TKATn    OF   THE    PRIXCK    CONSOUT.  15 

instances  competitive  ;  that  is,  tliey  offer  to  the  candi- 
dates one  or  more  specific  prizes,  the  possession  of  which, 
by  particuhir  competitors  iuvolvcs  the  exclusion  of  others. 
Tliis  form  of  examination  lias  great  advantages.  It  raises 
to  a  maximum  that  stimulus  which  acts  insensibly  but 
powerfully  upon  the  minds  of  students,  as  it  were,  from 
behind  ;  and  becomes  an  auxiliary  force  augmenting  their 
energies,  and  helping  them,  almost  without  their  know- 
ledge, to  surmount  their  dilliculties.  It  is  not  found  in 
practice,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  be  open  to  an  objection  which 
is  popularly  urged  against  it ;  this,  namely,  that  it  may 
elicit  evil  passions  among  the  candidates,  because  it  makes 
the  gain  of  one  the  loss  of  another.  I  believe  that,  on  the 
contrary,  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  is  found  to  carry  with 
it,  in  this  respect,  its  own  preservatives  and  safeguards. 
Even  in  athletic  sports,  the  loser  does  not  resent  or  grudge 
the  fairly  won  honours  of  the  winner ;  and,  in  the  race  of 
minds,  those  Avho  ai'e  behind,  having  confidence  in  the 
perfect  fairness  of  the  award,  are  not  so  blindly  and  basely 
selfish  as  to  cherish  resentment  against  others  for  being 
better  than  themselves.  Again,  it  is  a  recommendation  of 
purely  competitive  examinations  that  they  bring  the  mat- 
ter to  the  simplest  issue ;  for,  in  nice  cases,  it  is  a  much 
easier  and  safer  task  for  the  examiner  to  compare  the  per- 
formances of  a  candidate  with  those  of  another  candidate, 
than  to  compare  them  "\\ith  some  more  abstract  staiidard, 
existing  only  in  his  own  mind.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a 
disadvantage  of  this  system  that  the  honours  given  at 
difi'erent  times,  purporting  to  be  eqiml,  are  given  to  un- 
equal merit :  for  the  number  and  excellence  of  the  com- 
petitors varies  fi'om  one  occasion  to  another ;  and  tlie 
winner  of  one  year  may,  on  this  account,  be  inferior  to  the 
loser  of  another. 


16  ADDRESS   AT    MANCHESTEK. 

19.  Miicli  may,  in  truth,  be  said  in  praise  or  in  dis- 
paragement of  one  method  of  examination  as  compared  with 
another.  Into  controversy  of  this  kind  I  do  not  propose 
to  enter,  further  than  to  say  that  I  think  the  highest 
value  belongs  to  the  competitive  species  in  cases  like  that 
of  admission  to  the  Civil  Service  of  the  State,  where  a  main 
object  is  to  bar  the  way  against  the  action  of  corrupt  or 
inferior  motives  in  those  who  appoint.  In  the  long-run, 
the  simple,  clear,  and  self-acting  method  of  an  open  com- 
petition will  probably  be  found  more  ade(;[uate  than  any 
other  agency  to  contend  against  the  wakeful  energies  of 
human  selfishness,  ever  on  the  alert,  first  to  prevent  the 
adoption  of  improvements,  and  then  to  neutralise  and  mar 
their  operation. 

20.  But  what  I  would,  on  the  present  occasion,  specially 
endeavour  to  biing  to  yoiu-  attention  is  the  general  cha- 
racter of  this  instrument  of  examination,  as  it  is  under- 
stood and  as  it  is  applied  in  the  present  century,  and  in 
the  institution  with  which  we  have  now  to  deal.  The 
essential  character  of  it  I  take  to  be  this — that  the  candi- 
date, instead  of  himseK  producing  a  piece  of  work,  and 
asking  to  be  judged  by  it,  offers  and  opens  his  mind  to  the 
examining  authority  to  be  tested,  searched,  and,  so  to  speak, 
even  ransacked,  in  such  manner,  and  by  such  questions 
and  processes,  as  that  examining  authority  shall  choose. 
The  adoption,  or  wide  extension,  of  such  a  method  as  tlus 
marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  study.  It  shows  that  we 
have  overlived  the  time  when  the  greater  part  of  those 
who  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  were  enamoured 
of  its  beauty,  and  loved  it  for  its  own  sake,  with  a  devout 
and  tender  love.  In  the  childhood  of  mental  culture,  it 
was  the  prerogative  of  a  few,  and  the  mere  possession  of 
it  constituted  a  high  distinction.     So,  likewise,  us  in  thoso 


DEATH    OF    THE    PRINCE    COXSOUT.  17 

days  legal  rights  were  ill  defined  and  protected,  commerce 
vs^as  circumscribed,  nations  were  sharply  severed,  and  but 
few  of  the  careers  of  active  life  were  open,  it  naturally 
happened  that,  in  the  case  of  many  persons,  mental  culture 
had  little  to  compete  with  for  their  regard.  In  circum- 
stances like  these,  it  might  not  be  needful  constantly  to 
apply  a  strong  stimulus  from  without.  The  very  novelty 
and  freshness  of  knowledge,  in  ages  just  emerging  from 
darkness  and  disorder,  gave  it  a  powerful  charm  for  the 
imagination,  over  and  above  its  hold  upon  the  intellect ; 
it  was  piu'sued  by  a  spontaneous  movement  from  within, 
with  passion  as  well  as  with  con\'iction  ;  and  those  who  so 
pursue  it  do  not  need  to  be  goaded  in  their  onward  course ; 
their  service  is  a  service  of  love,  and,  like  the  love  of 
youth  for  maiden,  it  is  its  own  incentive  and  its  own 
reward. 

21.  But  when  society  has  passed  into  what  is  distinct- 
ively, and  in  many  respects  truly,  termed  a  progressive  state  ; 
when  the  personal  rights  of  men  are  as  secure  in  the  outer 
world  as  in  the  closest  retirement ;  when  a  thousand  new 
careers  of  external  life  are  opened,  and  its  attractions  in 
a  thousand  forms  are  indefinitely  multiplied ;  when  large 
numbers  can  engage,  not  merely  in  labour  for  subsistence, 
but  in  the  pursuit  of  wealth ;  and  when  a  desire  to  rise 
upon  the  social  ladder  takes  possession  of  whole  classes, 
if  not  on  their  own  behalf,  at  least  on  behalf  of  their 
children ;  then  there  arises  a  compound  danger.  First, 
lest  the  value  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  should  be 
wholly  forgotten ;  and,  secondly,  lest  even  its  utility  in 
innumoralilc  respects  for  the  comfort  and  advancement  of 
life  should  pass,  in  great  measure,  out  of  view. 

22.  Now,  my  friends,  it  is  in  such  an  age  as  this  that  we 
are  living.     That  same  attraction  or  necessity  of  wages, 

I.  0 


18  ADDRESS    AT   MANCHESTER. 

which  takes  the  poorer  child,  either  in  town  or  village, 
from  school  at  too  early  a  period,  is  but  the  exhibition  for 
one  class  of  a  pressiu'e  felt  by  all.  With  the  wealthier  it 
is  pleasure,  with  the  needier  it  is  gain ;  but  all  classes  and 
all  circles  are  alike  in  this,  that  our  youth  are  in  danger 
of  undervaluing  solid  mental  culture,  and  of  either 
neglecting  or  shortening  its  pm'suit  by  reason  of  the 
increased  alliu'ements,  or  the  more  urgent  calls,  of  the 
outer  sphere  of  life.  Although  knowledge  is  in  so  many 
ways  auxiliary  to  art  and  to  commerce,  yet  this  is  a 
matter  not  so  palpable  to  the  individual  that  we  can  rely 
on  it  to  enable  him,  as  it  were,  to  speculate  upon  a 
distant  benefit,  which  concerns  others  as  well  as,  or  it 
may  be  more  than,  himself;  and  to  forego  for  its  sake 
advantages  which  lie  nearer  at  hand,  which  appertain 
directly  to  his  own  career,  and  wliich  are  on  the  level 
of  every  man's  understanding.  Long,  accordingly,  after 
trade  and  manufactures  had  begun,  one  hundred  years  ago, 
their  upward  spring,  education  and  art  seemed  rather  to 
decline  than  to  advance  among  us.  At  length  a  day  of 
awakening  came.  Christian  philanthropy,  we  may  do 
well  to  remember,  was  first  in  the  field  on  behalf  of  the 
masses  of  the  people  ;  but  after  a  while,. it  found  itself  in 
partnership  with  an  enlightened  self-interest  on  the  part 
of  individuals,  and  with  the  political  prudence  of  the 
Government.  JSlow,  for  a  long  course  of  years,  all  three 
have  prosecuted  their  work  in  remarkable  harmony  one 
with  another.  Long  may  their  union  continue,  and  its 
golden  fruits  teem  and  glow  over  all  the  siu'face  of  the 
land ! 

23.  A  piincipal  form,  in  which  they  have  well  developed 
their  united  activity,  has  been  the  form  of  examinations; 
and  I  must  in  candour  say  that,  among  all  the  particular 


DEATH    OF   THE    PRIXCE    CONSORT.  19 

applications  of  tliis  principle,  I  have  seen  none  more  re- 
markable than  that  which  we  have  met  to-night  to  com- 
memorate and  to  encourage.  For  here  it  is  not  leisure, 
wealth,  and  ease  wliich  come  to  disport  themselves  as 
athletes  in  intellectual  games  :  it  is  the  hard  hand  of  the 
worker,  which  his  yet  stronger  ^\'ill  has  taught  to  wield 
the  pen  ;  it  is  Labour,  gathering  up  with  infinite  care  and 
sacrifice  the  fragments  of  time,  stealing  them,  many  a 
one,  from  rest  and  sleep,  and  offering  them  up,  like  so 
many  widows'  mites,  in  the  honest  devotion  of  an  effoi-t 
at  self -improvement. 

24.  There  are  those,  my  friends,  who  tell  us  that  exami- 
nations, and  especially  that  competitive  examinations,  are 
of  no  real  value ;  that  they  produce  the  pretence  and  not 
the  reality  of  knowledge  ;  that  they  give  us,  not  solid  pro- 
gress, but  conceit  and  illusion.  I  freely  admit  that  this 
modem  method  is  likely  to  rear,  as  far  as  we  can  judge, 
no  greater  prodigies  of  learning  than  did  the  simple  and 
spontaneous  devotion  of  the  olden  time ;  perhaps,  if  we 
are  to  look  only  at  individual  cases  of  pre-eminence,  none 
so  great.  But  I  say  that  the  true  way  to  imitate  the 
wisdom  of  the  olden  time  is  this :  to  watch  the  conditions 
of  the  age  in  which  we  live  ;  to  accept  them  thankfully 
and  freely,  as  at  once  the  law  of  ProA-idence  for  our 
guidance,  and  the  gift  for  our  encouragement :  and  Avhen 
we  learn  by  experience  that  tlio  tools  with  Avhich  other 
generations  wrought  are  not  suited  for  the  work  that  is 
given  us  to  do,  then  to  find,  if  we  can,  some  other  tools 
which  are. 

25.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  experience  of  half 
a  century,  as  well  in  the  Universities  as  elsewhere,  appears 
to  have  shown  that  the  method  of  examinations  is  the 
best,  and  perhaps  the   only,   method  by   which,    in   the 

c  2 


20  ADDRESS    AT    MAJTCHESTEK. 

England  of  the  nineteenth  century,  any  due  efficiency  can 
be  imparted  to  the  general  business  of  education.  I  do 
not,  indeed,  deny  that  a  certain  trick  or  craft  may  be 
practised  in  them ;  that  some  may  think  more  of  the 
manner  of  displaying  their  knowledge  to  a  momentary 
advantage,  like  goods  in  a  shop-window,  than  of  laying 
hold  upon  the  substance.  But  I  say  that  these  abusive 
cases  will  be  the  exceptions,  not  the  rule.  I  say  that 
those  who  so  unjustly  plead  them  against  the  system 
forget  that  this  very  faculty,  of  the  ready  command  and 
easy  use  of  our  knowledge,  is  in  itself  of  immense  value. 
It  means  clear  perception,  it  means  orderly  arrangement. 
And,  above  all,  they  forget  what  I  take  to  be  the  specific 
and  peculiar  virtue  of  the  system  of  examinations,  namely 
this,  that  they  require  us  to  concentrate  all  the  faculties 
of  the  mind,  with  all  their  strength,  upon  a  point.  In 
and  by  the  efforts  necessary  for  that  cencentration,  the 
mind  itself,  obtaining  at  once  breadth  of  grasp  and  in- 
creased pliability  and  force,  becomes  more  able  to  grapple 
with  great  occasions  in  the  subsequent  experience  of  life. 

26.  Therefore,  my  friends,  again  I  say  let  us  accept 
frankly  and  cheerfully  the  conditions  of  the  age  in  which 
our  lot  is  cast,  and  let  us  write  among  its  titles  this — that  as 
it  is  the  age  of  humane  and  liberal  laws,  the  age  of  extended 
franchises,  the  age  of  Avarmer  loyalty  and  more  firmly 
established  order,  the  age  of  free  trade,  the  age  of  steam 
and  railways  ;  so  it  is  likewise,  even  if  last  and  least,  the 
age  of  examinations.  Let  me  add,  it  is  the  age  in  which 
tliis  powerful  instrument  of  good,  formerly  the  exclusive 
privilege  of  the  more  opulent,  has  been  extended,  perhaps 
most  conspicuously  of  all  by  this  group  of  institutions,  to 
the  people.  And  I  give  you  this  for  my  concluding  word ; 
that,  if  that  rrince  of  whose  bright  career  and  chai'acter 


l>EATn:   OF   THE    PKINCE    CONSORT.  21 

I  lately  spoke  were  now  among  us,  none,  we  may  be 
sure,  would  more  cordially  than  he  claim  honour  for  a 
system  which,  in  such  thoroujyh  hannony  with  the  whole 
spirit  of  English  laws  and  institutions,  aims  at  enabling 
every  one,  in  every  rank  of  the  social  scale,  the  lowest 
like  the  highest,  to  give  proof  of  what  mettle  he  is  made, 
and  to  turn  to  the  best  account  the  gifts  with  which,  by 
the  bounty  of  his  Heavenly  Tathcr,  his  mind  has  been 
endowed. 


n. 

LIFE  OF  THE   FEINCE   COXSOPtT— COrr.T  OF 
QUEEX  VICTORIA  * 

Vol.  I.     London,  1875. 

1 .  The  clay  which  announced  throughout  the  land  the  death 
of  the  Prince  Consort  was  a  day  of  universal  gloom.  The 
heart  of  the  nation  was  touched  by  the  suddenness  with 
which  indisposition  had  assumed  the  face  of  danger,  and 
interest  had  grown  into  alarm  ;  and  there  was  a  prescient 
observation,  at  an  early  stage  of  the  illness,  that  the  con- 
stitution of  the  illustrious  patient  did  not  seem  to  oifer 
that  stout  resistance  to  the  advances  of  disease  which  his 
favourable  age,  and  his  tall,  manly,  well-proportioned 
form  would  have  seemed  to  insure.  The  purity  of  his 
life,  the  integrity  of  his  character,  his  varied  talents  and 
accomplishments,  and  the  active  share  in  public  under- 
takings, so  often  and  so  judiciously  assumed,  had  gradually 
acquired  for  him  a  strong  and  deep  liold  upon  the  esteem 
of  the  British  people.  But  the  deptli  of  that  sympathy 
and  sorrow  which  accompanied  the  catastrophe  was  prob- 
ably a  tribute  to  the  sorrow  of  tlui  Queen,  in  a  yet  greater 
degree  than  to  the  signal  merits  of  her  husband.  It  was 
felt,  by  a  just  instinct,  that  love  and  loss  conjointly  had 


*  'Life  and  Speeches  of  the  Prince  Consort — Court  of  Queen 
Victoria'  (by  Etononsis).  Publishe<l  in  the  Contciiipnrnr;i  Eevuw, 
June  1875.  R(>|uililislieil  for  ciroulation  abroad  in  one  of  the  volumes 
of  Baron  Tauchnitz,  Leipzig,  1876. 


24  LIFE    OF   THE    PKINCE   CONSOET 

perhaps  never,  amidst  all  the  varieties  of  life,  been  raised  to 
so  high  a  pitch  :  that  no  woman  had  ever  leant  more  fondly, 
and  no  queen  had  ever  had  so  much  cause  to  lean.  The 
weight  was  now  doubled ;  while  the  strength  was  halved, 
and  the  joy  and  comfort  gone.  Accordingly,  there  was  a 
real  and  genuine  desire  of  the  whole  people  to  be  partners 
in  her  great  affliction,  in  no  conventional  or  secondary 
sense,  but  by  trnlj  bearing  a  portion  of  it  along  with  her. 
I  speak  neither  wholly  nor  even  peculiarly  of  the  highest 
circles.  On  the  contrary,  the  sentiment  deepened,  as  it 
widened,  with  every  step  downwards  from  class  to  class, 
even  to  the  very  base  of  society. 

2.  To  the  same  mixed  feeling,  with  the  same  dominant 
reference  to  the  Sovereign,  may  have  been  partly  due 
the  remarkable  multiplication  in  all  quarters  of  the  local 
Memorials,  which  by  degrees  covered  the  land.  With 
respect  to  the  most  conspicuous  of  these,  the  gorgeous 
structure  near  the  western  extremity  of  Hyde  Park,  it 
may  perhaps  be  said  that  its  extraordinary  magnitude  of 
scale  and  sumptuousness  of  execution  may  in  future  days 
be  deemed  to  assert  a  greater  superiority  to  other  mortals, 
on  behalf  of  the  Prince  Consort,  than  even  his  pure  and 
lofty  reputation  can  be  expected  to  sustain.  In  any  case, 
we  may  say  of  him  with  truth  what  the  greatest  Italian  poet 
of  this  century,  Giacomo  Leopardi,  has  said  of  Dante : — 
"  lo  so  ben 

Che  saldi  men  che  cera,  e  men  ch'  arena. 

Verso  la  fama  che  di  te  laseiasti. 

Son  bronzi  e  marmi."* 

Happily  we  have  sure  memorials  of  his  mind,  and  faith- 


*  Rudely  and  slightly  rendered  in  the  following  lines: — 
"Matched  with  the  fame 
Of  thy  great  name,  [Bronze 


COTJET    OF   QUEEN   "VTCTOEIA.  25 

ful  chroniclers  of  his  histoiy ;  and  it  may  be  confidently- 
expected,  while  it  must  be  ardently  desired,  that  not  only 
our  own  time,  but  futiu'e  generations  also,  may  continue  to 
prize  the  recollection  of  a  life  lifted  far  above  the  ordi- 
nary level  of  princely  existence,  and  not  only  meritorious, 
but  even  typical  for  nations  and  men  at  large. 

3.  Before  taking  notice  of  the  work  of  Mr.  Martin,* 
we  must  briefly  refer  to  the  two  other  ofPeiings  of  loyal 
commemoration  which  were  already  before  the  world. 

In  1867  General  Grey  compiled,  under  the  direction  of 
Her  Majesty,  a  memoir  of  '  The  Early  Years  of  the  Prince 
Consort,'  from  1819,  the  year  of  his  birth,  to  the  birth  of 
the  Piincess  Royal  in  1840.  Originally  prepared  for 
private  circulation,  it  was  afterwards  given  to  the  public ; 
and  the  intended  prosecution  of  the  work  was  announced 
in  the  closing  sentence  of  the  volume.  But,  no  long  time 
afterwards,  the  hand  of  the  writer  was  cold  in  death.  The 
work  of  General  Grey  was  even  more  communicative, 
threw  even  more  light  upon  the  personal  histories  and  the 
domestic  interior,  than  the  later  biography.  He  had  been 
chosen  to  discharge  a  labour  of  love,  implying  on  the  pai-t 
of  his  Sovereign  the  liighest  confidence.  Never  was  that 
confidence  better  deserved.  Besides  possessing  the  other 
qualities  needed  for  his  important  functions,  he  was  a  man 
loyal  with  no  common  loyalty  ;  and  his  long  standing  at 
the  Court  gave  liim  the  power,  which  younger  men  cannot 


Bronze  is  but  wax, 
And  Marble  sand. 
To  baiHe  Time's  attacks, 
And  stealthy  hand." 
From  G.  Leopardi,   '  Sopra  il  monumento  di  Pante  che  si  preparava 
in  Kiionze.' 

*  'Life  of  the  Prince  Consort,'  vol.  i.,  1875. 


26  LIFE    OF   THE   PRIJTCE    CONSORT 

be  expected  equally  to  possess,  of  acting  in  all  points  the 
part  of  a  faithful  friend.  The  "  fierce  light  that  beats 
upon  a  throne  "  is  sometimes,  like  the  heat  of  that  fiimace 
in  which  only  Daniel  could  walk  unscathed,  too  fierce  for 
those  whose  place  it  is  to  stand  in  its  vicinity.  The  inci- 
dents of  a  Court  retain,  down  to  our  day,  their  fascination, 
and  we  are  old-fashioned  enough  to  hope  it  may  not  soon 
be  lost ;  yet  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  it  is  girt  about 
with  a  relaxing  atmosphere,  and  that  a  manful  constitu- 
tion, or  adequate  refreshment  fi'om  other  sources,  is  re- 
qtiired  in  order  to  secure  a  robust  health,  in  mind  and 
character,  to  its  favoured  residents.  Had  the  bodily 
strength  of  General  Grey  been  equal  to  his  mental  sound- 
ness and  manly  truthfulness  of  stamp,  he  would  still  have 
been  among  us,  with  many  coming  years  of  usefulness  to 
reckon. 

4.  A  more  recent,  but  not  less  loyal  or  judicious,  relation 
to  the  throne,  was  that  of  Sir  Arthur  Helps ;  whose  death 
we  have  been  called,  within  the  last  few  months,  to 
mourn.  So  early  as  in  1862,  he  had  been  chosen  to  edit 
the  Speeches  of  the  Prince ;  and  he  had  prefixed  to  them 
a  most  able  and  most  discriminating  introduction,  only 
second  in  interest  to  the  Speeches  themselves.  These  were 
eagerly  and  extensively  read  by  the  nation ;  and  they 
unqiiestionably  have  that  in  them  which  ought  not  to  die. 

5.  It  was  much  that,  after  the  removal  by  death  of  these 
two  admirable  servants  of  the  Crown,  her  Majesty  should 
be  able  to  select  for  tlic  definite  execution  of  a  task 
hitherto  only  attempted  in  fragments  a  biographer  of  such 
high  qualifications  as  Mr.  Martin.  He  has  brought  to 
the  execution  of  a  task  necessarily  arduous  the  saine  fine 
hand  and  accurate  discernment  with  which  he  had  previ- 
ously rendered  the  image  of  some  of  the  best  Latin  poets, 


COURT    OF   ftUEEX   VICTORIA.  27 

in  tlic  guise  of  liuppy  and  elegant  Euglisli  translations. 
It  is,  however,  unnecessary  for  us,  writing  many  months 
after  the  appearance  of  the  work,  to  repeat  in  detail  the 
praises  which  have  been  justly,  and  more  promptly, 
awarded  to  Mr.  ^klartin  already  by  authontative  and 
respected  organs  of  the  periodical  press.*'  We  have  only 
to  wish  that  he  may  continue  as  he  has  begun.  Perhaps 
we  should  add  the  expression  of  a  hope  that  the  nature  of 
his  subject-matter  may  not  again  impose  upon  him  any 
such  necessity  of  entering  largely  into  the  detail  of 
foreign  policy  as  he  encountered  in  the  painful  case  of 
the  Spanish  marriages.  Even  the  valuable  documents 
and  the  authentic  histoiy  he  has  here  furnished  want 
something  of  the  charm  of  a  biography.  Eut  the  interest 
of  the  Eoyal  portrait,  which  it  has  been  Mr.  Martin's 
duty  to  draw,  is  one  not  to  be  exhausted  with  the  run  of 
a  successful  work.  The  study  and  contemplation  of  the 
MAN  will  remain  permanently  fi-uitful  of  the  most  improv- 
ing lessons  to  eveiy  learner  in  the  school  of  human  nature. 
The  whole  action  of  the  Prince,  in  its  manifold  relations 
both  to  English  society  and  to  the  constitution  of  the 
country,  still  forms  a  subject  of  deep  interest  to  all  who 
are  interested  eitbcr  in  free  institutions  generally,  or  in 
the  peculiar  form  of  them  under  which  we  live.  And  the 
amount  of  calamity  we  have  suffered  by  his  death  has, 
perhaps,  not  even  yet  been  fully  apprehended. 

6.  It  is  not  our  intention  to  enter  largely  into  the  narra- 
tive of  a  life  of  which  the  general  features  are  so  well  and 
widely  known  ;  especially  as  we  cannot  doubt  that  Mr. 
Martin's  work  will  in  no  long  pei-iod  obtain  access  to  a 
wider  circle  of  readers,  through  republication  in  a  popular 


Quarterly  Review  for  January  1857,  pp.  108-110, 


28  LIFE    OF   THS   PRINCE   CONSOET 

form,  than  is  permitted  by  its  present  size  and  price. 
But  we  shall  carefully  select  our  points  of  reference.  And 
there  is  one  anecdote  of  the  Prince's  childhood,  recorded 
by  Count  Arthur  Mensdorff,  wliich  exhibits  in  very  early 
times  the  base,  so  to  speak,  of  his  character. 

"  One  day,  when  we  children,  Albert,  Ernest,  Ferdinand, 
Augustus,  Alexander,  myself,  and  a  few  other  boys,  were  play- 
ing at  the  Rosenau,  and  some  of  us  were  to  storm  the  old  ruined 
tower  on  the  side  of  tlie  castle,  which  tiie  others  were  to  defend, 
one  of  us  suggested  that  there  was  a  place  at  the  back  by  which 
we  could  get  in  without  being  seen,  and  thus  capture  it  without 
difficulty.  Albert  declared  '  that  this  would  be  most  unbecoming 
in  a  Saxon  kiiiglit,  who  should  always  attack  the  enemy  in  front.' 
And  so  we  fought  for  the  tower,  so  honestly  and  vigorously,  that 
Albert,  by  mistake,  for  I  was  on  his  side,  gave  nie  a  blow  upon  the 
nose,  of  which  1  still  bear  the  mark.  I  need  not  say  how  sorry  he 
was  for  the  wound  he  had  given  me."  * 

7.  The  boy  was  father  of  the  man ;  and  from  the  high 
standard  which  he  had  thus  early,  and  thus  earnestly, 
presented  to  himself,  he  never  deviated.  He  was  also 
happy,  beyond  almost  all  other  men,  in  the  aids  which  he 
received.  His  education  seems  to  have  been  conducted 
with  all  the  care,  the  steady  direction  of  means  to  an  end, 
the  determination  to  turn  all  minds  and  all  faculties  to 
the  very  best  account,  which  distinguishes  the  Germans 
beyond  any  people  ol  Europe.  It  seems  as  though  there 
were  no  disturbing  clement  of  waste  iu  their  moral  and 
intellectual  world ;  and  this  extraordinary  and  noble 
thrift  early  became  a  governing  principle,  and  a  great 
power,  in  the  life  of  the  Prince  Consort. 

8.  Eut  he  had  higher  advantages  even  than  those  of  a 
careful  and  elaborate  training,  in  the  constant  and  all'ec- 


Mr.  JIartin,  p.  7 ;  Oeneral  Grey,  p.  57. 


COTTRT    OF    QUEEN    VICTORIA.  29 

tionate  attontion  of  two  men,  each  iu  himself  remarkable, 
and  both  devoted  in  an  extraordinary  measure  to  his  vrol- 
fare,  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  Queen,  with  whom  in  a  long 
vista  of  anticipation  we  arc  told  that  his  destiny  was 
almost  from  the  very  first  conjoined  (Martin,  p.  14). 
They  were  men  not  only  of  p;roat  gifts,  hut  singularly 
adapted  for  their  work  of  wardcnship. 

9.  One  of  them  was  King  Leopold,  Piince  of  Saxe- 
Cohurg  by  birth,  sovereign  of  Belgium  by  a  happy 
selection  and  adoption.  This  sovereign  must  undo;ibtedly 
be  reckoned  among  the  great  statesmen  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  As  a  monarch,  he  gave  a  living  example  of  all 
the  lessons  which  are  to  be  learned  from  the  free  institu- 
tions of  the  world,  and  some  part  of  which,  at  least,  he 
may  have  originally  gained  from  his  association  with,  and 
residence  in,  England.  Called  to  the  throne  under  circum- 
Btances  more  menacijig  than  those  of  his  neighbour  and 
father-in-law,  Louis  riiilippe,  he  lived  in  prosperity  and 
died  in  honour,  while  the  heir  of  the  more  splendid  lot 
closed  his  days  in  obscurity  and  in  exile.  And  it  may  not 
be  an  unreasonable  opinion  that,  had  France  been  governed 
from  1880  onwards  with  the  enlightened  frankness  of 
King  Leopold,  the  Orleans  dynasty  might  still  be  un  the 
throne,  and  Alsace  and  Lorraine  still  might  bear  the 
insignia  of  France  ; 

"Trojaque  nunc  stares,  Priamiquearx  alta  maneres." 

Th(>  column  of  the  Place  Vendome  would  not  be  in  ruins, 
nor  the  Hotel  de  Ville  in  ashes. 

Married  in  early  life  to  Princess  Charlotte  of  England. 
he  stood  in  the  Hue  of  succession  to  the  very  same  position 
which  his  nephew,  Piince  Albert,  was  afterwards  to  hold. 
By  the  early  death  of  that  princess,  which  was  so  deeply 


30  LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE    CONSORT-^ 

and,  as  is  now  known  in  the  light  of  hxter  disclosures,* 
so  deservedly  lamented,  the  cup  was  dashed  from  his  lips. 
But,  without  doubt,  the  exact  reproduction  of  the  same 
situation,  for  others  so  near  and  dear  to  him  in  the  next 
generation,  must  have  heightened  in  his  mind  that  interest 
in  their  well-being  which  his  relationship  of  itself  could 
not  but  inspire,  and  which  the  early  death  of  the  Duke 
of  Kent  (in  1820)  gave  him  an  appropriate  opportunity 
of  bringing  into  action  with  reference  to  the  Princess 
Victoria. 

10.  One  of  his  great  acts  of  tutelary  friendship  was  to 
bring  upon  the  scene  Baron  Stockmar,  a  person  who  was  to 
contribute  as  directly,  and  perhaps  with  a  yet  larger  effect, 
to  the  safe  and  happy  direction  of  the  Prince's  life.  Copious 
memoirsf  of  the  Baron  were  printed  three  or  four  years 
back  by  his  son,  in  Gei'man,  and  were  translated  into 
English.  But,  notwithstanding  their  near  association  with 
persons  and  matters  so  interesting  to  the  nation,  they  did 
not  take  any  extended  hold  of  the  public  mind.  The 
almost  idolising  ardour  of  filial  affection  in  the  author  of 
the  book  failed  to  redeem  a  number  of  errors  in  point  of 
taste  and  propriety.  Fortunately  the  character  of  the 
person  commemorated  was  so  high  as  to  sur\ive  and  sui'- 
mount  the  injudicious  and  obtrusive  commemoration.  In 
the  pages  of  Mr.  Martin,  Baron  Stockmar  appears  in  his 
just  place  and  relation  to  things  and  persons ;  which  of 
course  is  not  that  of  the  Olympian  Zeus  of  modern  Europe. 
Of  great  and  cultivated  gifts,  he  was  a  man  aljsolutely 
disinterested,  not  merely  in  the    sense  of  superiority   to 


*  See  QuaHcrhj  Itcvicw  for  Jan.  1873,  Art.  1 :  a  monioir,  uot  a 
criticism. 

t  '  Memoirs  of  Raron  Stockmar.'  V>y  his  son.  Baron  K.  von  Stock- 
mar.    Translated  from  tJie  Uermau  by  G.  A.  M.     Lonijuiuus,  1872. 


COURT    OP    QUKEN    VICTORIA.  31 

pecuniary  inducement,  bnt  in  the  power  of  casting,  as  it 
were,  himself  out  of  himself,  so  as  to  attain  a  complete 
identification  with  those  on  whose  behalf  he  a|lvised  or 
acted,  for  all  the  purposes  .to  \\liifh  the  advice  or  action 
might  belong.  To  a  fearless  independence  he  added,  as 
Mr.  Martin  truly  says,  a  penetrating  judgment  of  men  and 
things  (p.  15),  and  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  devotion. 
Eminently  cosmopolitan  in  the  framework  of  his  mind,  he 
was  free  from  national  limitations  ;  and  was  able  both  to 
appreciate  for  liimself,*  and  to  instil  into  anothcu-  in  a 
remarkable  degree,  the  true  character  of  the  British  Con- 
stitution, a  product  of  our  insular  soil  which  is  not  only 
without  a  parallel,  but  in  its  subtler  parts  almost  without 
analogy  elsewhere.  It  is  commonly  seen,  by  even  the 
most  intelligent  of  foreigners,  as  pictux'cs  are  seen  in  gas- 
light, Avith  a  strong  projection  of  their  more  glaring 
colours,  and  a  total,  or  at  best  very  serious,  loss  of  their 
more  delicate,  cool,  transparent  shadows  and  graduating 
touches.  From  1816  to  18c}  1  the  Baron  had  been  resi- 
dent in  England  as  the  private  secretary  of  Prince 
Leopold,  and  the  comptroller  of  his  household.  He  had 
also  acted  as  the  organ  and  represcMitativc  of  the  Prince 
in  the  difficult  negotiations  A\liiuli  followed  his  acceptance 
of  the  Belgian  crown ;  and  which  were  well  qualified,  as 
may  be  seen  by  the  readers  of  the  recent  *  Life,  of  Lord 
Palmcrston,'  to  exercise  and  develop  the  capacity  of  any 
man  for  statesmanship.  Ketiring  to  Coburg  in  18;31,  lie 
obeyed  in  1836  a  new  call  of  King  Leopold  for  his  aid, 
and  became  a  main  agent  in  the  happy  and  wise  conspiracy, 
of  which  the  King  was  probably  the  first  author,  for  dis- 


*  See,  for  examples,  Martin,  vol.  i.  pp.  110,  111.     But  llie  subject 
recurs  inf.  Ko.  III.,  j>p.  75  sqq. 


32  LIFE    OF   THE    PRINCE    CONSORT 

posing  all  circumstances  towards  the  marriage  of  the 
young  Prince  Albert  with  the  future  Queen  of  England, 
and  for  fitting  him  to  adorn  the  exalted  station.  The 
succession  of  Princess  Victoria  had  now  no  contingent 
impediment  in  its  way ;  and  it  was  time  to  make  prepai-a- 
tion  for  smoothing  her  arduous  upward  path  with  the  best 
of  all  appliances. 

11.  The  plan  in  view  was  bold,  but  not  more  bold  than 
wise.  It  evidently  was  to  make  a  preparation  ideally 
perfect,  but  yet  to  leave  choice  as  entire  and  free  as  if 
there  had  been  no  preparation  whatever.  A  golden  halo 
of  romance  thus  invested  the  early  life  of  these  young 
and  illustrious  persons.  The  whole  narrative  really  re- 
calls the  most  graceful  fictions  of  Avise  genii  and  gentle 
fairies,  besetting  mortals  with  blessings,  and  biassing 
their  fates  to  bliss.  It  was  as  where  the  highest  skill 
combines  with  bounteous  soil  and  beneficent  climate  to 
secure  the  golden  harvest.  There  never  can  have  been 
an  instance  in  which  public  and  domestic  aims  were  more 
thoroughly  harmonised  ;  though  there  have  been  so  many 
where  the  human  hearts  and  lives  of  Royal  persons  have 
been  as  lightly  sacrificed  as  if  they  had  been  creatures 
doomed  to  vivisection  in  tlie  interests  of  science  or  of 
curiosity. 

12.  This  comprehensive  forethought  did  not  fail  to 
secure  even  a  political  reward.  The  palaces  of  England 
became  shrines  of  domestic  happiness  ;  and  the  Court  exhi- 
bited to  the  nation  and  tlie  world  a  pattern  of  personal  con- 
duct, in  all  the  points  most  slippery  and  dangerous  for  a 
wealthy  country,  with  a  large  leisured  class,  in  a  luxurious 
age.  Idleness  was  rebuked  by  the  unwearied  labours  of 
the  highest  persons  in  the  land ;  vulgar  ostentation  grew 
pale  in  the  face  of  a  splendour  everywhere  associated  with 


COtTRT    OF    QUEEN    VICTOKIA.  33 

duty,  and  measured  by  its  ends ;  impurity  could  not  live 
in  so  clear  an  atmosphere ;  even  thrift  had  its  tribute  of 
encouragement,  where  hospitalities  truly  regal  and  un- 
■wearied  Avere  so  organised  as  not  to  put  disdain  upon  the 
homely  unatti-active  duty  of  living  within  an  appointed 
income.  All  these  personal  excellences  were  seen  and 
appreciated  by  the  public ;  and  they  conti'ibuted,  perhaps 
no  less  than  wise  legislation,  and  conduct  inflexibly  con- 
stitiitional,  to  draAv  close  the  ties  between  the  people  and 
the  throne. 

13.  The  ciilminating  point  of  the- interest  with  which 
the  life  of  the  Prince  Consort  should  be  regarded  is  one  at 
Avhich  it  is  really  inseparable  from  the  associated  life  of 
the  Queen.  They  are  ideally  the  obverse  and  reverse  of 
the  same  medal ;  nay,  actually,  the  several  moieties  of 
the  same  whole.  And,  thus  considered,  they  supply  the 
one  normal  exhibition  of  a  case  in  which  the  AVoman- 
ruler  of  a  great  empire,  herself  highly  endowed  with  both 
character  and  intelligence,  has  rested  as  it  were  on  the 
background  of  another  consummately  accomplished  exist- 
ence, and  has  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  all  its  qualities,  and 
all  its  energies,  as  amply  as  if  they  had  belonged  to  her 
own  original  store.  Happy  marriages,  it  may  be  thank- 
fully acknowledged,  are  rather  the  rule  among  us,  than 
the  exception ;  but  even  among  happy  marriages  this 
marriage  Avas  exceptional,  so  nearly  did  the  union  of 
thought,  heart,  and  action  both  fulfil  the  ideal,  and  bring 
duality  near  to  the  borders  of  identity.  Not  uncommonly, 
the  Avif'e  is  to  the  husband  as  the  adjective  is  to  tlie 
substantive.  And  beyond  doubt  the  great  faculties  aiid 
com])rehensivc  accomplishments  of  Prince  Albert  fully 
cntilled  him  to  claim  a  hus])and's  place.  But  the  hus- 
band's place  was  in  this  case  modified  l)y   the  position. 

I.  D 


34  LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE   COIfSOET 

The  Prince  exactly  appreciated  the  demands  of  the  throne 
upon  its  occupant,  and  the  consequential  demands  of  his 
wife  upon  himself.  He  saw  that  it  was  his  duty  to  live 
in,  for,  and  through  her,  and  he  accepted  with  a  marvel- 
lous accuracy  of  intellectual  apprehension,  and  with  an 
imswerving  devotion  of  his  heart,  this  peculiarly  relative 
element  in  a  splendid  existence. 

14.  On  one  occasion,  at  least,  he  was  led  to  describe  in 
words'^'  his  own  life-long  function.  In  the  year  1850, 
nearly  at  the  point  of  bisection  of  his  married  life,  the 
Duke  of  AVellington  strongly  urged  upon  him  that  he 
should  assume  the  office  of  Commander-in-Chief.  In  this 
recommendation  we  see  at  once  one  of  the  many  instances 
of  the  Duke's  enthusiastic  attachment  to  the  Sovereign, 
and  an  undoubted  indication  of  faculties  tending  to  decline 
with  the  lapse  of  years.  The  characters  of  the  Queen 
and  of  the  Prince  stood  so  high,  that  the  first  announcement 
of  his  acceptance  of  such  an  office  might  have  given 
pleasure.  But  every  man  acquainted  with  the  spirit  of 
Parliamentary  government  must  at  once  have  seen  it  to  be 
indefensible,  and  in  a  high  degree  inconvenient.  It  is, 
indeed,  to  be  desired  that  a  very  close  relation  of  senti- 
ment between  the  Sovereign  and  the  Army  should  be 
permanently  maintained.  But  the  Army  is,  after  all,  a 
great  department  of  the  State ;  and  departments  of  the 
State  can  only  be  administered  in  this  country  by  persons 
responsible  to  Parliament.  There  are,  indeed,  some 
features  in  the  office  which  recommend  that  its  contact 
with  Parliament  should  be  mediate,  and  not  direct.  Tlie 
discipline  of  the  Army  is  a  subject  so  grave,  so  delicate, 
and  associated  at  such  a  miiltitude  of  points  with  the 


♦  Speeches,  j>.  76. 


COUKT    OF    QTJEEN    VICTORIA.  35 

interests  and  feelings  of  the  governing  class,  that  it  should 
be  as  little  as  possible  exposed  to  the  influence  of  Parlia- 
mentary pressure  ;  a  pressure  nowadays  much  more  apt 
to  be  exercised  in  the  interest  of  class  than  in  that  of 
the  public.  The  responsibility,  therefore,  of  the  Com- 
mamler-in-Chief  is  covered  by  that  of  the  Secretary  of 
State.  Eut  this  protection  is  not  exemption ;  and  the 
authority  of  Parliament  is  entire  with  respect  to  the  mili- 
tary as  well  as  the  official  head.  Now,  the  responsibility 
of  public  ofiii'crs  in  these  days  does  not  usually  clothe 
itself  in  the  hard  material  forms  of  impeachments  and 
attainders,  as  it  did  in  other  times.  It  is  sufficiently  sus- 
tained and  enforced,  for  the  most  part,  through  the 
immensely  quickened  action  of  opinion,  and  through  an 
increased  susceptibility  to  its  influence.  Tlie  ultima  ratio 
with  us  is  no  longer  fraught  with  peril  to  life,  liberty,  or 
estate,  b\it  simply  means  removal  from  office.  This 
power,  however,  is  indispensable  ;  and  the  case  of  the 
Duke  of  York  may  serve  to  show  that  it  is  no  mere 
phantom.  Ikit  it  is  quite  plain  that  no  such  power  could 
have  been  exercised,  or  even  discussed,  in  reference  to 
the  husband  of  the  Queen,  without  affecting  the  Throne ; 
to  which  he  was  so  closely  related,  that  whatever  injured 
the  one  must  have  brought  the  other  more  or  less  into 
question.  Now,  in  such  a  matter,  there  should  be  no 
more  and  less.  It  follows  that,  whatever  might  have 
been  the  guarantees  afforded  by  his  character  for  wise  and 
unimpeachable  conduct,  there  was  a  radical  and  incurable 
fault  in  the  Duke's  suggestion.  The  Prince  could  not 
fulfil  the  very  first  among  the  conditions  of  fitness  for  the 
office  :  he  could  not  be  removable. 

•  15.  Yet,  how  great  was  the  teni])tation  to  an  active 
mind,  conscious  of  the  capacity,  and  filled  with  the  desii'e 

D  2 


36  LIFE    OF    THE    PKINCE    CONSORT 

to  render  service  to  tlie  nation,  for  once  at  least  to  seize 
the  opportunity  of  claiming  to  give  that  service  in  a  form 
in  which  it  would  bring  the  valuable  reward  of  a  daily 
and  palpable  appreciation.  The  recommendation,  thus 
attractive  in  itself,  proceeded  from  a  Statesman  of  four- 
score, and  from  the  man  who,  of  all  the  land  could  boast, 
stood  fii'st  in  the  public  estimation.  It  might  well  have 
been  mistaken  for  a  safe  proposal.  We  cloiibt  whether  a 
merely  intellectual  superiority  would  have  saved  the 
Prince  from  this  serious  danger ;  this  trap,  laid  in  inno- 
cence by  most  friendly  hands.  But  his  intellectual 
superiority  was  backed  by  a  noble  power  of  moral  self- 
denial.  And  so  he  found  his  way  to  the  heart  and  root  of 
the  matter.  In  a  letter  to  the  Duke,  he  describes  the 
position  of  the  "  female  sovereign,"  and  proceeds  as 
follows : — 

"  This  reqifires  that  the  husbaticl  should  entirely  sink  his  own 
imlividnal  existence  in  that  of  his  wife  ;  tliat  he  should  aim  at  no 
power  by  himself  or  for  himself ;  sliould  s-lura  all  ostentation ; 
assume  no  separate  responsibility  before  the  public;  but  make  his 
position  entirely  a  part  of  hers,  fill  up  every  gap  which,  as  a 
■woman,  she  would  naturally  leave  in  the  exercise  of  her  regal 
functions,  continually  and  anxiously  watch  every  j'art  of  the 
public  business,  in  order  to  be  able  to  advise  and  assi.st  her  at 
any  moment,  in  any  of  tlie  multifarious  and  difficult  questions  or 
duties  brought  before  her,  sometimes  international,  sometimes 
political,  or  social,  or  persomil.  As  the  natural  head  of  her  family, 
su])eriutendeut  of  her  household,  manager  of  her  private  afl'airs , 
sole  confidential  adviser  in  politics,  and  only  assistant  hi  tlie  com- 
munications with  the  I  fficers  of  the  Government;  hi;  is,  Ijcsides, 
the  hu.sband  of  the  (Jueen,  the  tutur  of  the  roval  children,  llio 
private  tccrctary  of  the  Sovere'gn,  and  her  pcinianent  IMinister." 

10.   In  this  admirably  large  description  we  seem  to  find 
but  one  venial  error  of  a  word.     It  is  not  in  the  epitliet 


COUBT    OF    QVKKN    VICTOUIA.  37 

confi(lcnti<il;  for  though  this  very  phrase,  by  the  ni=iagc  of 
the  Constitution,  belongs  to  the  successive  bodies  of  her  ad- 
visers, it  is  numifestly  applicable  witli  perfect  propriety  to 
the  Prince,  in  a  distinct,  and  in  a  much  higher  than  the 
official  sense.  It  is  in  the  word  Minister.  Minister  to 
tlie  Queen  he  could  not  be,  because  his  conduct  "was  not 
"W'itlun  the  reach  aud  control  of  Parliament.  But,  in  fact, 
the  word  is  too  weak  to  convey  the  character  of  the 
relation  between  his  mind  and  the  mind  of  the  Queen.  He 
was  to  her,  in  deed  and  tnith,  a  second  self. 

17.  Much  more,  then,  than  a  personal  interest  (high  as 
in  such  a  case  the  personal  interest  is)  attaches  to  this  great 
example.  On  the  Queen,  as  a  woman,  was  laid  a  maxi- 
mum of  burden.  The  problem  was  to  find  for  her  a  cor- 
res])onding  maximum  of  relie\'ing  aid.  Tlie  relation  of  the 
Prince  to  the  Queen  was  really  an  experiment  in  the 
science  and  art  of  politics  for  the  civilised  Avorld.  Its 
success  was  complete  :  if  it  had  failed,  not  England,  but 
the  civilised  world  would  have  been  the  loser.  For  the 
part  sustained  by  the  Monarch  in  the  system  of  this 
extended  Empire  still  remains  a  great  matter,  and  not  a 
small  one. 

18.  The  weighty  business  of  kingship  has  in  modem 
times  been  undergoing  a  subtle  and  silent,  yet  an  almost 
entire  transformation ;  and,  in  this  country  at  least,  the 
process  has  reached  its  maturity.  Neither  the  nature  nor 
the  extent  of  this  change  appear  as  yet  to  have  become 
familiar  to  the  ordinary  run  of  observers.  The  name  of 
the  Queen  was  still  the  symbol,  and  her  office  the  foun- 
tain, of  all  lawful  powers ;  Royalty  was  seen  and  felt 
among  us,  until  the  darkening  shadow  of  widowhood  fell 
upon  the  august  head,  by  the  people  of  every  rank  aiul 
class,  with  unusual  frequency,  and  in  a  spleudom-  never 


38  LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE    CONSOET 

surpassed  by  the  habit  of  preceding  Sovereigns.  Many, 
then,  did  not  advert  to  the  fact  that  the  character  of  the 
regal  office  had  been  altered,  wliile  those  who  believed 
in  the  change  for  the  most  part  believed  also  that  this 
great  function  was  now  emptied  of  its  force,  and  reduced 
to  an  illusion.  Both  were  alike  in  error ;  in  an  error 
which  it  is  not  easy  to  correct  by  a  summary  description. 
The  nearest  approach  to  an  account  combining  truth  and 
brevity  would  perhaps  be  found  in  the  statement,  that 
while  in  extent  the  change  has  been,  at  least  inwardly, 
nothing  less  than  a  transformation,  its  substance  may 
chiefly  be  perceived  in  a  beneficial  substitution  of  influence 
for  power. 

19.  JSTot  that  even  power  is  entirely  gone.  The  whole 
power  of  the  State  periodically  returns  into  the  Eoyal 
hands  whenever  a  Ministry  is  changed.  This  resumption 
is  usually  brought  about  by  forces  distinct  from  the 
personal  action  of  the  Sovereign.  The  day  when  George 
IV.,  in  1829,  after  a  struggle,  renewed  the  Charter  of 
the  Administration  of  the  day,  and  thereby  submitted  to 
the  Roman  Catholic  Eelief  Act,  may  be  held  to  denote  the 
death  of  British  Kingship  in  its  older  sense,  which  had  in 
a  measure  survived  the  Bevolution  of  1688,  and  had  even 
gained  in  strength  during  the  reign  of  George  III.  The 
endeavour  of  King  William  IV.,  in  1834,  to  assert  liis 
personal  choice  in  the  appointment  of  a  Ministry  without 
reference  to  the  will  of  Parliament,  gave  to  the  Conser- 
vative party  a  momentary  tenure  of  office  without  power. 
But,  in  truth,  that  indiscreet  proceeding  of  an  honest  and 
well-meaning  man  produced  a  strong  reaction  in  favour  of 
the  Liberals,  and  greatly  prolonged  the  predominance 
which  they  were  on  the  point  of  losing  through  the  play 
of  natural   causes.      Laying   too   great  a   stress  on  tho 


COUET    01'    QL1:KX    VICTORIA.  39 

instrument  of  Royal  will,  it  tended  not  to  strengthen  the 
Throne,  but  to  enfeeble  it.*'  Such  was  the  upshot  of  an  in- 
judicious, though  undoubtedly  conscientious,  use  of  power. 
20.  The  case  was  very  ditfercut  when  the  pressure, 
not  of  Itoyal  will,  but  of  Parliamentary  difiiculties, 
brought  about  the  first  resignation  of  the  Melbourne 
Government  in  1839,  and  what  was  called  the  Bed- 
chamber qTK'stion  arose.  It  was  a  question  whether  the 
ladies  of  the  Court,  who  had  been  politically  appointed, 
should  or  should  not  retire  from  office.  The  Queen,  not 
yet  twenty  years  old,  but  capable  of  contracting  attach- 
ments at  once  quick  and  durable,  resisted  the  demand. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  if  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  been 
allowed  at  that  time  to  proceed  with  liis  task,  the  Ministry 
he  would  then  have  foiined  would  have  been  possessed 
of  reasonable  stability.  Put  the  power  of  the  young 
Sovereign,  applied  with  the  skilful  use  of  opportunity, 
Bvifficed  to  prolong  the  duration  of  the  Liberal  Govern- 
ment until  the  summer  of  1841,  a  period  of  nearly  two 
and  a  half  years.  Its  exercise  produced,  at  the  time,  no 
revulsion  in  the  public  mind.  The  final  judgment  upon 
the  conduct  of  the  parties  to  the  crisis  has  been  more 
favourable  to  the  Minister  than  to  the  Monarch.  Baron 
Stockmar  himself  has  expressed  this  opinion.  But  the 
question  specially  involved  was  the  claim  of  the  woman  in 
her  early  youth.  It  was  a  claim  of  which,  confined  within 
certain  limits,  equity  would  surely  have  recommended  the 
allowance.  Possibly  it  was  suspicion,  the  most  obstinate 
among  the  besetting  sins  of  politicians,  even  in  men  of 
upright  nature,  which  interfered  on  the  side  of  rigour. 
The  j  ustice  of  the  case  has,  we  think,  been  expressed  in  the 


*  But  see  inf.  No.  III.,  p.  78,  on  this  rather  complex  matter. 


40  LIFE    OF   THE    PRINCE    CONSOUT 

arrangement  which  has  now  long  prevailed.  The  Mistress 
of  the  Robes,  who  is  not  periodically  resident  at  the 
Court,  but  only  an  attendant  on  great  occasions,  changes 
with  the  Ministry:  the  Ladies  in  Waiting,  who  enjoy 
much  more  of  personal  contact  by  virtue  of  their  office 
with  the  Sovereign,  are  appointed,  and  continue  in  tlieir 
appointments,  without  regard  to  the  political  connections 
of  their  husbands. 

21.  The  record  of  the  transaction,  given  in  Hansard,* 
rests  mainly  upon  two  letters,  one  from  the  Queen,  and  the 
other  from  Sir  Robert  Peel ;  and  these  two  letters  do  not 
fully  harmonise  in  their  representation  of  the  facts.  The 
Queen,  in  her  letter,  mentions,  and  refuses,  the  proposal 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel  "to  remove  the  ladies  of  her  Bed- 
chamber." Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  his  answer,  speaks  only 
of  his  desire  to  remove  a  portion  of  them ;  and  in  the 
same  letter  declines  to  prosecute  the  task  of  forming  a 
Ministry.  Hence  it  appears  that  he  abandoned  that 
undertaking  to  construct  a  Government  upon  a  decision  of 
the  Queen's,  which  is  not  the  decision  announced  by  her. 
She  declined  to  remove  them  as  a  body ;  he  resig-ns  his 
charge,  because  he  is  not  allowed  to  remove  a  few  among 
them.  It  is  very  difficult  to  understand  why  he  did  not 
dispel,  if  only  for  his  own  sake,  the  misapprehension 
under  which  the  Queen's  letter  may  have  been  written. 
At  present  the  documentary  evidence  only  shows  that 
Her  Majesty  refused  an  unreasonable  demand;  and  that 
he  retired  from  his  high  position  because  he  adhered  to 
a  demand  which,  whetliiir  necessary  or  not,  was  not  un- 
reasonable. If  in  truth  the  matter  turned  upon  Her 
Majesty's  resistance  to  this  narrower  request,  it  is  quite 

•  Vol.  xlvii,  pp.  984  sqq. 


COURT    OF    aVKEX    VICTORIA.  41 

possible  that  it  Avas  an  error  on  tlio  one  side  to  press 
the  request  to  extremity,  and  on  the  other  to  refuse  it. 
Had  it  been  upon  the  w'uIvy  stipuhition,  all  -would  surely 
have  admitted  that  there  was  full  warrant  for  the  refusal. 
22.  We  have  dwelt  upon  the  case,  because  it  allords  tlio 
most  recent  illustration  of  the  successful  exercise  of  Royal 
power,  and,  on  this  account,  bears  a  character  of  historical 
importance.  The  thirty-six  years  which  have  since 
elapsed  have  been  undisturbed  even  by  a  single  shock  in 
the  relations  between  the  Sovereign  and  her  Government, 
which  has  changed  its  head  no  less  than  twelve  times 
without  the  slightest  jolt  or  friction  in  the  play  of  the 
machinery.  But  although  the  adrairal)le  arrangements 
of  the  Constitution  have  now  completely  shielded  the 
Sovereign  from  personal  responsibility,  they  have  left 
ample  scope  for  the  exercise  of  a  direct  and  personal 
influence  in  the  whole  work  of  governmeiit.  The  amount 
of  that  influence  must  vary  greatly,  according  to  character, 
to  capacity,  to  experience  in  affairs,  to  tact  in  the  appli- 
cation of  a  pressure  which  never  is  to  be  carried  to 
extremes,  to  patience  in  keeping  up  the  continuity  of 
a  multitudinous  supeiwision,  and,  lastly,  to  close  presence 
at  the  seat  of  government ;  for,  in  many  of  its  necessary 
operations,  time  is  the  most  essential  of  all  elements,  and 
the  most  scarce.  Subject  to  the  range  of  these  variations, 
the  Sovereign,  as  compared  with  her  Ministers,  has, 
because  she  is  the  Sovereig-n,  the  advantages  of  long 
experience,  wide  survey,  elevated  position,  and  entire 
disconnection  from  the  bias  of  party.  Further,  personal 
and  domestic  relations  with  the  ruling  families  abroad 
give  openings,  in  deliiate  cases,  for  saying  more,  and 
saying  it  at  once  more  gently  and  more  efRcaciously,  than 
could  be  ventured  in  the  more  formal  correspondence,  and 


42  LIFE    OF    THE    PEINCE    CONSORT 

ruder  contacts,  of  Governments.  "We  learn  from  the 
volume  of  Mr.  Martin  with  how  much  truthfulness  and 
decision,  and  with  how  much  tact  and  delicacy,  the 
Queen,  aided  by  the  Prince,  took  a  principal  part,  on 
behalf  of  the  nation,  in  tlie  painful  question  of  the 
Spanish  marriages.  Instances  so  very  conspicuous  as 
this  may  be  rare ;  but  there  is  not  a  doubt  that  the 
aggregate  of  direct  influence  normally  exercised  by  the 
Sovereign  upon  the  counsels  and  proceedings  of  her 
Ministers  is  considerable  in  amount,  tends  to  permanence 
and  solidity  of  action,  and  confers  much  benefit  on  the 
country,  without  in  the  smallest  degree  relieving  the  ad- 
visers of  the  Crown  from  their  undivided  responsibility. 

23.  But  we  doubt  whether  even  this  very  important 
function  of  the  Sovereign  in  watching,  following,  and  can- 
vassing policy,  be  not  less  important  than  the  use  which 
may  be  made  of  the  vast  moral  and  social  influence 
attaching  personally  to  the  occupant  of  the  throne.  This 
is  a  power  exercised  upon  the  ordinary  relations  of  life, 
and  greatly  through  the  ceremonial  and  hospitalities  of  a 
Court. 

Little  are  they  who  gaze  from  without  upon  long  trains 
of  splendid  equipages  rolling  towards  a  palace  conscious 
of  the  meaning  and  the  force  that  live  in  the  forms  of  a 
Monarchy,  probably  the  most  ancient,  and  certainly  the 
most  solid  and  the  most  revered,  in  all  Europe.  The  acts, 
the  wishes,  the  example,  of  the  Sovereign  in  this  country 
are  a  real  power.  An  immence  reverence  and  a  tender 
affection  await  upon  the  person  of  the  one  penuanent 
and  ever  faitliful  guardian  of  the  fundamental  conditions 
of  the  Constitution.  She  is  the  symbol  of  law  ;  she  is  by 
law,  and  setting  apart  the  mctapliysics,  and  the  abnormal 
incidents,  of  revolution,    the   source   of  power.     Parlia- 


COURT    OV    QUKKX    VICTORIA,  43 

ments  and  ^Ministries  pass,  but  she  abides  in  life-long 
duty ;  and  she  is  to  them  as  the  oak  in  tlie  forest  is  to 
the  annual  harvest  in  the  field.  AVlien  the  august  func- 
tions of  the  Crown  are  irradiated  by  intelligence  and 
virtue  they  are  transformed  into  a  higher  dignity  than 
words  can  fully  convey,  or  Acts  of  Parliament  can  confer; 
and  traditional  loyalty,  with  a  generous  people,  acquires 
the  force  (as  ^Ir.  Burke  says)  of  a  passion,  and  the  warmth 
of  personal  attachment.  But  by  those  to  whom  we  are 
attached,  we  are  ready  and  prone  to  be,  nay,  we  are 
already,  influenced. 

24.  This  power,  inherited  Avith  the  place,  will  ever  prove 
to  have  been  husbanded  and  enlai'ged  in  strict  proportion 
to  the  discharge  of  duty :  and  is  independent  of  all  personal 
contact,  strictly  so  called,  between  Sovereign  and  subject. 
But  the  personal  contact  of  the  Sovereign  with  the  subject, 
under  favourable  circumstances,  such  as  those  which  the 
Prince  so  greatly  contiiliuted  to  form,  is  of  very  consider- 
able extent.  We  do  not  now  speak  of  local  visits  or  special 
relations  to  a  class  such  as  the  Army ;  or  of  participation 
in  the  amusements  of  the  people,  as  at  theatres,  or  balls, 
or  concerts.  And  yet  these  are  not  to  be  despised ;  nay, 
it  may  be  taken  for  granted,  that  tlie  presence  and  interest 
of  the  Sovereign  in  these  recreations  tend  to  expel  from  them 
vidgarity,  to  reduce  in  many  points  the  capricious  excess 
of  fashion,  and  generally  to  make  their  quality  better  than 
it  would  tend  to  become  under  other  auspices,  by  gi"ving  a 
distinct  and  high  sanction  to  the  effoi-ts  of  those  who  are 
ever  striving  to  raise  the  level  (for  example)  of  the  miisical 
and  dramatic  arts.  But  we  must  likc^wise  take  more  par- 
ticularly into  view  what  is  more  strictly  in  the  nature  of 
personal  contact.  To  come  under  the  roof  of  the  Sove- 
reign, to  partake  the  hospitalities  of  the  SovereigTi,  to  be 


44  LIFE    OF    THE    PEINCE    COXSOET 

admitted,  even  for  momeuts  only,  to  the  converse  of  the 
Sovereign,  all  these  are  things  of  meaning.  The  converse, 
the  hospitalities,  the  very  place,  all  in  their  dilfercnt 
degrees  constitute  powers,  and  give  scope  for  influence : 
for  influence,  which  all  that  is  good,  as  well  as  something 
of  what  is  Lad,  in  English  society  tends  to  enhance.  These 
things  make  their  mark  ;  and  the  mark  is  usually  durable. 

25.  With  us,  society  is  passing  under  many  subtle  yet 
vital  changes.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  wealth  is 
now  in  England  no  longer  the  possession  of  a  few,  but  rather 
what  is  termed  "  a  drug."  That  is  to  say,  it  is  diffused 
through  a  circle  so  much  extended,  and  so  fast  extending, 
that  to  be  wealthy  does  not  of  itself  satisfy ;  and  the 
keenness  of  the  unsatisfied  desire,  aspiring  selfishly  not  to 
superiority,  but  rather  to  the  marks  of  superiority,  seeks 
them  pre-eminently  in  the  shape  of  what  we  term  social 
distinction.  But  the  true  test  of  the  highest  social  dis- 
tinction, in  this  country,  is  nearness  to  the  Monarch  ;  and 
all  this  avidity  for  access,  for  notice,  for  favour,  expresses 
an  amount  of  readiness  to  conform,  to  follow,  to  come 
under  influence,  which  may  often  be  indifferent  enough 
in  quality,  but  is  very  largo  in  quantity. 

26.  Eut,  quite  apart  from  these  more  questionable 
elements,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  society  of  this 
country  is  hierarchically  constituted.  It  is  not  here  as  it 
was  in  the  Court  of  Louis  N^apoleon,  where  there  was  as 
much,  or  more,  of  splendour  and  display,  but  where  the  in- 
fluence exercised  by  personal  contact  terminated  in  those 
who  were  its  immediate  objects,  because  they  were  often 
the  mere  meuibers  of  a  clique,  and  Avire-pullers  of  political 
intrigue,  never  the  natural,  traditional,  accepted  heads, 
or  teachers,  of  society.  At  the  Court  of  Queen  Victoria 
it  was  otherwise.      Those  who   came   within  the  magio 


COURT    OF    QUEEX    VICTOETA.  45 

circle  ■\\'ovc  persons  every  one  of  ■whom  was  more  or 
less  himself  a  power :  the  chiefs  of  the  professions,  the 
leaders  of  Parliament,  the  Patriarchs  of  letters,  the  Pri- 
mates of  art,  and,  as  was  natural  and  right,  in  larger 
measure  than  any  other  class,  the  aiistocracy  of  the  land, 
tlicmselvcs  having,  in  so  many  instances,  the  double  title 
of  iiiheiited  station  and  high  personal  distinction.  Even  in 
dealing  with  these  distinguished  orders  of  men,  apnnci])le 
of  selection  was  not  forgotten  ;  and  it  became  evident  that, 
witlioiit  invidious  severances,  the  Court  preferred  in  every 
class  those  Avho  were  the  best  in  that  class,  and  leant  to 
passing  by  those  less  eligible.  Thus  the  whole  force  of 
Eoyal  example  and  authority  was  given  to  good ;  and  gi\'cn 
in  the  most  eflicacious  manner.  The  preferences  of  the 
Court  silently  exhorted  to  right  conduct  all  who  were 
■within  their  reach,  and  strongly  discountenanced  its  oppo- 
site. This  was  thcur  operation  within  the  necessary  limited 
class,  to  which  alone  close  personal  intercourse  could  by 
possibility  extend. 

27.  But  it  was  a  very  small  part  of  their  whole  opera- 
tion. Of  the  planets  which  wheel  round  the  sun  some  are 
themselves  wheeled  round  by  other  and  secondary  stars. 
Tlie  Couit  touched,  in  the  strictest  sense,  only  the  select 
men  of  the  country  ;  but  of  these  every  one  was  himself  a 
centre  of  influence  by  example,  by  exertion,  by  nu'iital 
activity,  it  might  be  by  all  combined  ;  and  each  ti'ans- 
mitted  what  he  had  derived,  as  one  billiard  ball  carries 
on  the  stroke  to  another,  or  as  the  circles  widen  on  the 
water.  Many  readers  may  find  something  of  paradox  in 
what  we  are  now  saying  ;  but  we  venture  to  believe  that 
it  is  because  they  have  not  taken  occasion  to  make  the 
subject  a  matter  of  careful  study  and  observation.  Among 
the  things  least  understood,  and  most  sadly   under-esti- 


46  LIFE    OF    THE    PEIXCE    COXSORT 

mated,  in  the  world,  are  the  force  of  example,  and  the 
silent  influences  of  leadership.     In  our  social  system,  so 
marked  by  the  dovetailing  of  classes,  the  quality  of  recep- 
tivity for  these  influences  is  raised  to  its  ynaximum.,  and 
they  pass  from  the  summit  even  to  the  base.     We  do  not 
hesitate  to  express  a  firm  con-vdction  that  the  Court  of 
Queen  Victoria  was  a  sensible  and  important  element  in 
the  group   of  forces  which,  for  two  or  three  decades  of 
years,   raised  in  so  beneficial  a  manner   the    social   and 
moral  tone  of  the  u}iper  classes  of  this  country,  although 
the  upward  movement  they  received  has  of  late  years  not 
been  sustained,  if,  imlecd,  the  tide  has  not  for  some  time 
been  ebbing.     Supposing  this  to  be  true,  then  that  Court 
was  a  great  fact  in  history  ;  if  at  least  history  is  to  be  a 
picture,   and  not  only  a  signboard.       We  may  also  say 
that  its  imposing  exterior,   its   regular   and   many-sided 
action,  and  its  accurate  and  refined  adjustments,  made  it 
a  work  of  art.     Of  all  this  the  Prince  was,    and  could 
not  but  be,  the  organising  and   directing  mind.     Am])ly 
charged  with  political  labour  and  its  moral  responsibili- 
ties, the  Queen  was  thus  provided  with  an  appropriate 
relief;  and  in  one  im}>oi'tant  sphere  of  action  all  things 
moA-ed,  for  her,  automatically.     The  quantity  of  what  is 
expected  from  a  Sovereign,  in  a  state  of  society  like  ours, 
is  double  and  quadruple  of  what  the  working  force  of  a 
single  mind  and  will  can  readily  supply.     By  the  Prince's 
close   union  with   the    Queen,    and  by  his    energy,    his 
method,    and   his  judgnu'ut,   the   motive   power  was  at 
once  doubled,  while  from  the  close  harmony  of  the  two, 
singleness  of  impulse  and  operation  Avas  fully  maintained. 
28.  We  have,  in  these  pages,  rather  endeavoured  to  bring 
into  view  what  we  think  to  have  been  the  less  observed 
parts  of  the  Prince's  action,  than  dwelt  upon  such  forms 


COrRT    OF    QUr.KX    VICTORIA.  47 

of  his  useful  activity  as  arc  better  known.  Inptinctivcly 
remote  from  ideology,  he  had  an  energetic  tendency  to- 
wards social  improvement  in  every  form,  and  herein 
especially  towards  those  reformatory  schemes  which  were 
calculated  to  bring  into  view  new  modes  of  coping  with 
social  mischief;  as  well  as  those  which  tended  to  raise 
the  level  of  culture  and  to  refine  common  life  by  the 
habits  and  appliances  of  art.  When  the  subjects  of  his 
care  and  attention  are  brought  together,  they  form  a 
whole  so  formidable  in  amount,  that  tlic  mind  is  struck 
and  almost  shocked  at  the  lavish  expenditure  of  brain- 
power which  they  must  have  required,  amidst  all  that 
splendour  ^^  hich  is  readily  mistaken  for  ease  by  the  care- 
less beholder ;  and  Avonder  becomes  less,  as  pain  becomes 
more,  at  that  sapping  and  exhaustion  of  vital  forces,  Avhieh 
probably  made  openings  for  disease,  and  prepared  him  to 
succumb  to  it  in  the  early  maturity  of  his  manhood. 

29.  But  in  truth  the  form  of  self-saci-ifice  practised  by 
the  Prince  seems  to  be  the  prime,  and  perhaps  the  only, 
way  in  which,  under  the  circumstances  of  modem  times,  the 
nobleness  of  the  Eoyal  character  can  be  sustained.  The 
changes  which  have  affected  the  position  of  Sovereigns 
and  their  families  among  us  are  in  many  respects  fraught 
with  moral  danger,  and  with  temptation  in  peculiar  forms, 
not  easily  detected.  Of  old,  the  King  had  all  his  splen- 
dours and  all  his  enjoyments  weighted  by  the  heavy  cares, 
and  verv  real  and  rude  responsibilities,  of  government ; 
and  "uneasy  lay  the  head  that  wore  a  crown."  It  was  a 
truth  as  old  as  the  time  of  Troy,  when  other  gods  and 
warriors  slept,  but  Zeus  alone  was  Avakeful.*  Thus  it 
was  that  power,  and  luxuiy,  and,  what  is  far  more  insi- 


Uiatl,  ii.  1.     Comp.  x.  1-4, 


48  LIFE    OF   THE    ruiiyCE    COS^SORT 

dious,  flattery,  were  then  compensated  and  kept  in  check. 
In  the  British  Monarchy,  the  lodgment  of  the  various 
parts  of  this  great  wliole,  making  up  a  King's  condi- 
tion, is  changed,  and  their  moral  equilibrium  put  in 
jeopardy.  There  are  still  gathered  the  splendours,  the 
enjoyments,  all  the  notes  of  homage,  all  the  eager  obe- 
dience, the  anticipation  of  wishes,  the  surrender  of  adverse 
opinions,  the  true  and  loyal  deference,  and  the  deference 
wliieli  is  factitious  and  conventional.  To  be  served  by 
all  is  dangerous  ;  to  be  contradicted  by  none  is  worse. 
Taking  into  view  the  immense  increase  in  the  appliances 
of  material  ease  and  luxury,  the  general  result  is,  that  in 
the  private"  and  domestic  sphere  a  Eoyal  will  enjoys  at 
this  epoch,  more  nearly  than  in  any  past  generation,  the 
piivileges  of  a  kind  of  omnipotence.  At  the  same  time, 
the  principal  burden  of  care,  and  all  responsibility  for 
acts  of  adniinistration,  and  for  the  state  of  the  country,  is 
transferred  to  the  heads  of  otliers,  and  even  the  voice  of 
the  lightest  criticism  is  rarely  heard.  In  these  circum- 
stances it  remains  singularly  true,  tliat  the  duties  of  a 
Court  entail  in  their  full  scope  a  serious  and  irksome  task, 
and  that  there  must  be  much  self-denial,  and  much  merit, 
in  their  due  discharge.  Eut  it  is  also  in  other  duties, 
principally  remote  from  the  public  eye,  that  the  largest 
scope  is  afforded  for  the  patient  and  watchful  labour  in 
l)ublic  affairs  which,  balancing  effectually  mere  splendour 
and  enjoyment,  secui'cs  the  true  nobleness  of  kingship 
against  the  subtle  inroads  of  scliishness,  and  raises  to 
their  maximum  at  once  the  toil,  tlic  usefulness,  and  tlie 
influence  of  the  British  Throne.  Never,  jtrobably,  under 
any  circumstances,  be  they  favourable  as  they  may,  can 
th(!se  rencli  a  higher  point  of  elevation  than  they  had 
attained  by  the  joint  efforts,  and  during  the  married  life, 


COTTKT   OF   QIEEX    VICTORIA.  49 

of  tlic  Qucon  and  the  Prince.  Nor  can  we  well  over- 
value that  addition  of  masculine  energy  to  female  tact 
and  truth  which  brought  the  working  of  British  lloyalty 
so  near  the  standard  of  ideal  excellence. 

30.  We  proceed  to  some  matters  more  exclusively 
personal  to  the  Prince.  A  German  by  birth,  he  never  lost 
the  stamp  of  Germany ;  no  true  man  can  wholly  lose  the 
stamp  of  his  own  country.  A  mildly  foreign  mark  upon 
his  exterior  and  manner,  together  with  the  perpetual  pre- 
sence of  a  manifest  endeavour  to  turn  every  man's  con- 
versation, every  man's  particular  gift  and  knowledge,  to 
account  for  his  own  mental  improvement,  most  laudable 
as  it  was,  yet  may  have  prevented  his  attaining  that 
charm  of  absolute  ease  in  his  intercourse  with  the  world 
which  he  is  known  to  have  possessed  in  the  circle  of  his 
family.  They  certainly  retarded  the  growth  of  his  popu- 
larity among  the  wealthy  and  the  great,  who  are,  and  may, 
w^e  fear,  always  remain,  not  the  least  censorious  among 
the  several  classes  of  society. 

31.  The  precocity  of  the  Prince  seems  to  have  been  not 
less  remarkable  than  were  his  solidity  and  his  many-sided- 
ness. In  this  respect,  indeed,  all  lloyal  persons  enjoy  such 
advantages,  through  the  elaboi'ateness  of  tlieir  training, 
the  devotion  of  those  who  surround  them,  and  their  large 
opportunities  of  contact  with  tlie  choicest  minds,  that 
almost  in  all  cases  they  seem  to  exhibit  a  number  of  the 
signs  of  maturity  much  earlier  than  do  those  in  a  less  ex- 
alted station.  What  was  specially  noteworthy  about  the 
Prince  was,  that  in  his  precocity  there  was  nothing  showy, 
or  superficial,  or  transitoiy.  Though  he  had  hardly  crossed 
the  threshold  of  manhood  wlien  he  arrived  among  us,  he 
gave  no  signs  of  crudity,  never  affected  knowledge  he  did 
not  possess,  never  slackened  in,  and  never  concealed,  that 

I.  £ 


50  LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE    CONSOET 

anxiety  to  learn  which  seemed  to  accompany  as  much  his 
social  leisure  as  his  working  hours.  There  seemed,  again, 
to  be  no  branch  of  human  knowledge,  no  subject  of  human 
interest,  on  which  he  did  not  lay  his  hand. 

32.  This  early  and  multitudinous  development,  which 
received  a  share  of  assistance  from  the  incidents  of  Koyalty, 
and  which  in  him  nature  had  supremely  favoured,  however 
dazzling  and  however  real  in  the  advantages  it  supplies,  has 
likewise  at  least  one  great  drawback.  It  is  not  favourable 
to  the  energetic  concentration  without  which  the  human 
mind  can  hardly  reach  to  greatness,  and  of  which  it  is 
plain  that  he  was  eminently  capable.  It  is  impossible  to 
say  what  growth  may  have  been  reserved  for  the  Prince 
during  his  later  years  ;  but  some  of  the  most  remarkable 
and  complete  among  the  Speeches — which  constitute,  after 
all,  his  very  best  memorial — belong  to  the  earlier  portion 
of  the  series ;  and  it  might  be  difncult  to  assign  to  the 
later  moiety  of  it  any  marked  superiority  over  the  first. 
The  circumstances  of  his  life  may  have  thwai'ted  the  bias 
of  nature  ;  but  undoul)tcdly  these  Speeches  seem  to  show 
the  exercise,  in  a  very  remarkable  degree,  of  the  three 
combined  faculties  of  terseness  in  expression,  of  concen- 
trated attention,  and  of  completeness  in  thought. 

33.  At  the  age  of  thirty,  in  1850,  he  delivered  a  speech 
Avhich  contains  one  of  the  very  best  descriptions  of  the 
mind  and  character  of  Sir  Robert  Peel.  This  description 
is,  among  its  other  features,  highly  sj'mpat]u;tie.  It  be- 
tokens a  real  intimacy;  and  there  is  no  other  of  the  same 
stamp.  In  truth,  the  character  of  Peel,  in  some  intellec- 
tual and  many  moral  qualities,  was  not  without  pointed 
resemblance  to  his  own.*    His  short  speech  at  the  meeting 

*  Speeches,  pp.  121-4. 


COUKT    OF    QUEEX    VICTOKIA.  51 

of  the  Corporation  of  the  Sons  of  the  Clergy,  in  1S54, 
affords  a  remarkable  example  of  handling  at  once  succinct 
and  exhaustive.*  The  speech  at  Birmingham,  for  the 
Midland  Institute,  in  1855,f  and  the  speech  at  Aberdeen, 
for  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association,  are  excellent. 
But  to  our  mind  the  Prince  never  surpassed  in  compre- 
hensiveness, in  his  fearless  truthfulness,  and  in  delicacy  of 
touch  and  handling,  his  address  at  the  festival  of  the 
Koyal  Academy,  in  1850,  when  he  was  still  but  thirty. 
After  treating  of  the  character  of  Sir  Charles  Eastlake, 
he  proceeds  to  the  general  subject : — 

~ "  Gentlemen,  the  production  of  all  works  in  art  or  poetry  requires 
in  their  conception  and  execution,  not  only  an  cxerci.>e  of  tlie  in- 
tellect, bkill,  and  patience,  but  particularly  a  concurrent  warmth 
of  feeling  and  a  I'ree  How  of  imagination.  This  renders  them  most 
tender  plants,  which  will  thrive  only  in  an  iitmo.s|  here  calculated 
t"  maiiitiiin  tlmt  warmth;  aiul  that  atmosphere  is  one  of  kindness 
—  kindness  towards  the  artist  persiin;illy,  as  well  as  towards  his 
produ'tion.  An  unkind  word  of  criticism  passes  like  a  cold  blast 
over  tlieir  [(jy.  the.-e]  tender  shoots,  and  slirivels  lliem  up,  checking 
tlie  lli)\v  of  the  sap,  which  was  rising  to  produce,  perhaps,  multi- 
tudes of  flowers  and  fruit. 

"  But  still,  criticism  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  develij)ment 
of  art,  and  the  injudicious  prai&e  of  an  inferior  worJc  becomes  un 
insult  to  superior  genius. 

"In  this  nspeet  our  times  are  peculiarly  unfavourable,  when 
compared  with  those  when  JMadonnas  were  painted  in  the  scclu- 
siou  of  convents.  For  we  liave  now,  on  the  one  hand,  tlie  eager 
competition  of  a  vast  ariay  of  arti.-ts  of  every  degree  of  talent  and 
skill,  and  on  the  other,  as  judge,  a  great  public,  for  the  great cr 
part  wholly  inieducated  in  art, and  thus  led  by  professional  wiiters, 
who  often  t-trive  to  impress  the  public  with  a  great  idea  of  their 
own  artistic  knowledge  by  the  merciless  manner  in  which  they 
trt  at  works  which  have  cost  those  who  produced  them  the  highest 
ellorts  of  uiiud  or  feeling. 


*  Speeches,  pp.  146-8.  f  -^^f'^-  P-  ^62. 

E  2 


52  LIFE    OF   THE    PRINCE    CONSORT 

"The  works  of  art,  by  being  publicly  exliibited  and  offered  for 
sale,  are  becoming  articks  of  trade,  follawing,  as  such,  the  unrea- 
soning laws  of  markets  and  fasliion  ;  and  public  and  even  private 
patronage  is  swayed  by  their  tyrannical  influence."  * 

In  these  evils  he  finds  the  ground  for  the  existence  of 
the  Academy,  which  has  done  much  to  deserve  the  public 
confidence,  but  yet  to  which  he  does  not  hesitate  fi'ankly 
to  point  out  its  own  besetting  danger. 

34.  We  pass  on  to  a  still  higher  matter.  "Where  so  warm 
and  so  wide  an  interest  is  felt  in  one  departed,  there 
cannot  but  be  much  desire  to  know  what,  in  this  agitated 
and  expectant  age,  was  his  mental  attitude  with  respect 
to  religion.  On  this  great  subject  there  has  been  some 
degree  of  reserve,  which  we  should  be  the  last  to  blame ; 
for  at  a  time  of  sharp  division,  and  of  much  fashionable 
scepticism  as  well  as  bigotry,  loving  hands,  such  as  those 
which  tend  the  Prince's  memory,  are  little  likely  to  expose 
a  cherished  reputation  to  the  harshest  and  most  penetrating 
forms  of  criticism.  For  the  public,  however,  the  matter 
has  now  become  one  of  history.  The  nation  knew, 
during  the  lifetime  of  the  Prince,  all,  perhaps,  that  it  had 
a  right  to  know.  They  knew  that  he  was  a  religious 
man.  In  his  earliest  youth, f  at  the  period  of  his  con- 
firmation, to  which,  in  Germany,  a  peculiar  cliaracter 
attaches,  he  declared  with  energy  his  resolved  adoption 
of  the  Christian  profession.  To  its  public  duties  he  paid 
a  regular  homage.  His  life  was  known  to  be  of  a  pure 
and  severe  morality,  of  an  incessant  activity  in  duty,  of 
an  exemplary  tone  in  the  various  domestic  relations.  The 
confidence  of  the  country,  won  upon  these  grounds,  was 
Bcalcd  by  the  obvious  presence  of  a  determined  and  even 


Siiccches,  p.  123.  f  JIartin,  p.  10. 


COURT    OF   QUEKN    VTCTOEIA.  53 

far-i'pacliing  Protestantism.*  Tlie  Prince  was  friendly  to 
an  cqu'-ility  of  civil  riglits  independent  of  religious  pro- 
fession ;  but  with  such  a  frame  of  opinion  for  himself, 
and  with  his  marked  earnestness  of  character,  a  certain 
degree  of  thecjlogical  narrowness,  inherited  rather  than 
personal,  may  have  formed  an  ingredient  in  his  views 
of  the  religious  system  of  the  Latin  Church,  even  when 
considered  apai't  from  its  latest  and  most  extravagant 
developments,  of  which  ho  lived  to  witness  some  bold 
beginnings. 

35.  So  far  as  can  be  gathered  incidentally  from  those 
who  find  admittance  to  the  inner  circles,  not  much  is  to  be 
added  to  the  outline  which  met  the  public  eye.  Nothing 
has  been  learned  to  show  that  his  mind  was  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  value  or  the  particulars  of  dogmatic 
orthodoxy.  "With  his  refined  culture,  he  could  not  but 
repel  the  crude  vulgarities  which  sometimes  discharge 
themselves  from  the  pulpit,  and  lurk  in  forms  of  popular 
religion  ;  and  it  is  extensively  believed  that  the  Church 
owes  to  the  Prince's  influence  and  suggestion  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  able  Prelate  who  fills  the  see  of  Worcester,  in 
substitution  for  a  person  of  more  popular  and  showy  type, 
but  of  far  less  learning,  capacity,  and  governing  force. 
"What  was  more  than  this  was  the  conviction,  which  all 
intercourse  with  the  Prince  conveyed,  as  to  his  own 
ruling  notions  of  daily  conduct.  His  life  was,  in  truth, 
one  sustained  and  perpetual  effort  to  realise  the  great  law 
of  duty  to  God,  and  to  discharge  the  heavy  debt  which  he 
seemed  to  feel  was  laid  upon  him  by  his  high  station,  and 
by  the  command  of  the  means  and  sources  not  less  of 
usefulness  than  of  enjoyment.     As  a  watch  wound  up 


*  Speeches,  p.  10. 


54  LIFE    OF   THE    PRINCE    CONSORT 

obeys  its  mainspring  till  it  has  all  run  out,  so  he,  at 
all  moments,  seemed  to  be  answering  the  call  of  an 
inward  voice,  summoning  him  to  learn,  to  think,  to  do, 
to  hear.  In  all  ranks  and  forms  of  life  this  is  a  noble,  au 
edifying  spectacle  ;  and  it  is  more  noble  and  edifying  in 
proportion  as  the  elevation  is  greater,  and  the  object 
visible  from  a  wider  range. 

36.  Some  religionists  will  be  tempted  hereupon  to  say 
how  sad  it  was  that  one  who  came  so  near  to  the  kingdom 
of  God  should  not  have  entered  in.  Some  will  simply  hold 
the  description  we  have  given  to  be  that  of  a  dry  self- 
righteousness,  which  cannot  stand  in  the  day  of  account. 
A  third  class,  whose  doubts  and  scruples  would  command 
more  of  our  sympathy,  would  ask  themselves  how  it  was 
that  a  man  who  thus  earnestly  and  faithfully  set  himself  to 
do  the  di^-ine  will  did  not  accordingly  appreciate  at  their 
fullest  value  those  specific  revelations  of  truth,  in  the 
form  of  doctrines  and  institutions,  which  Christians  in 
general  have  accepted  as  the  most  effectual  sources  of 
regenerative  power,  both  for  the  individual,  as  established 
by  personal  experience,  and  for  society,  as  written  on  the 
long  scroll  of  history  during  eighteen  centuries.  But  this 
opens  a  question  alike  broad  and  deep,  and  we  can  only 
glance  for  a  momfcnt  along  the  vi^ta. 

37.  Let  us  endeavour  to  sketch  a  frame  of  religious  sense 
and  conviction  different  from  that  of  the  Prince.  We 
take  a  hnman  soul  profoundly  conscious  of  the  taint  and 
power  of  sin ;  one  given  to  the  contemplation  of  the 
character  of  Christ,  and  shocked  at  its  own  immeasurable 
distance  from  the  glorious  image  of  the  Master;  one 
pained,  not  only  with  the  positive  forms  of  corruption, 
but  with  the  pervading  grief  of  general  imperfection  and 
unworthiness,  and  with  the  sense  how  the  choicest  por- 


COURT    OF    QVKEX    VICTORIA.  55 

tions  of  the  life  strangely  run  to  waste,  how  the  best 
desig-us  are  spoiled  by  faulty  actuation,  how  there  are 
tears  (in  the  touching  language  of  Bishop  Beveridge)  that 
want  washing,  and  repentance  that  needs  to  be  repented 
of.  Such  an  one  feels  himself  engaged  in  a  double  warfare, 
against  evil  witliout,  and  against  evil  within ;  and  finds 
the  last  even  fiercer  than  the  first.  To  deprive  one  so 
minded  of  any  fraction  of  what  are  termed  the  doctrines 
of  grace,  of  such  lights  as  shone  upon  the  souls  of  Saint 
Paul,  Saint  Augustine,  and  Saint  Bernard,  is  to  di'ain 
away  the  life's  blood  of  the  spirit,  and  lay  him  helpless  at 
the  feet  of  inexorable  foes.  For  a  nature  such  as  this, 
religion  is  not  only  a  portion  or  department  of  conduct, 
but,  by  a  stringent  necessity,  the  great,  standing,  solemn 
drama  or  action  of  life  ;  that  in  which  all  mental  powers, 
and  all  emotions  of  the  heart,  are  most  constantly  and 
intensely  exercised  ;  and  the  yearnings,  efforts,  and  con- 
flicts which  belong  to  the  external  order  are  as  nothing 
compared  with  those  which  are  to  God-wards. 
^,,38.  But,  as  in  the  Father's  house  there  are  many  man- 
sions, so  there  are  vast  diversities  in  the  forms  of  character 
He  is  preparing  to  inhabit  them.  However  true  it  maybe 
that  all  alike  have  sinned,  it  is  far  from  true  that,  all  have 
sinned  alike.  There  are  persons,  though  they  may  be 
rare  and  highly  exceptional,  in  whom  the  atmosphere  of 
purity  has  not  been  dimmed,  the  forces  of  temptation  are 
coin])aratively  weak,  and  at  the  same  time  the  sense  of 
duly  is  vigorous  and  lively.  Hence  the  temper  which 
trusts  God  and  loves  Him  as  a  Father  is  not  thwarted  in 
its  exercise  by  habitual  perversity,  nor  associated  with  so 
crushing  a  sense  of  the  sinfulness  that  debars  us  from 
ap]troach  to  Him,  or  of  the  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  a 
Sacrifice,  and  of  the  gift  and  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit 


56  LIFE    OF   THK    PRIXCE    CONSORT 

working  in  us  that  we  may  have  a  good  will,  and  with  us 
when  we  have  that  good  will.  Persons  such  as  these, 
ever  active  in  human  duty,  need  not  be  indifferent  about 
religion  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  may  be  strongly  religious. 
They  may,  as  the  Prince  did,  condemn  coldness,  and  com- 
mend fervour.*  They  may  "  give  their  heart  to  the 
Purifier,  their  will  to  the  Will  that  governs  the  universe;" 
and  yet  they  may  but  feebly  and  partially  appreciate 
parts  of  Christian  doctrine  ;  nay,  they  may  even,  like 
Charles  Lamb,  the  writer  of  these  beautiful  and  powerful 
words,  hold  themselves  apart  from  its  central  propositions. 
So  it  may  come  about  that  the  comparative  purity  of  a 
man's  nature,  the  milder  form  of  the  deterioration  he 
inherits,  the  fearless  cheerfulness  with  which  he  seems  to 
stand  and  walk  in  the  light  of  God's  presence,  may  impair 
his  estimate  of  the  warmer,  more  inward,  and  more  deeply 
s]nritual  parts  of  Christianity.  Further,  they  may  alto- 
gether prevent  him  from  appreciating  the  Gospel  on  its 
severer  side.  He  may  generously  give  credit  to  others  for 
dispositions  corresponding  with  his  own :  and  may  not 
fully  perceive  the  -necessity,  on  their  behalf,  of  that  law 
which  is  made,  not  for  the  righteous,  but  for  the  ungodly 
and  the  profane,  of  those  threatenings  and  prohibitions 
wherewith  the  Gospel  seeks  to  arrest  reckless  or  depraved 
spirits  in  their  headlong  course,  to  constrain  them  to  come 
in,  and  to  rescue  them  as  brands  from  the  burning.  In  a 
word,  ho  may  unduly  generalise  the  facts  of  his  own 
mental  and  moral  constitution. 

39.  We  do  not  admit  that  the  dissent,  or  only  faint  or 
partial  adhesion,  of  these  exceptional  human  beings  to 
the  ancient  creed  of  the  Christian  Church  detracts  from 


♦  Speeches,  pp.  132,  134. 


COCEX    OF    aiKKN    vrCTOBIA.  57 

its  just  authority ;  but  we  should  bo  slow  to  charge  the 
iiiaik"|uacy  of  their  doctrinal  concci)tions  upon  moral 
defect,  or  to  deny  the  truth,  force,  and  value  of  the  heart- 
service  which  they  may  and  do  render,  and  render  with 
affectionate  humility,  to  their  Father  and  their  God.  The 
Christian  dogma  is  the  ordained  means  of  generating  and 
sustaining  the  religious  life  ;  but  the  Almighty  is  not  tied 
to  the  paths  He  marks  out  for  His  servants,  and  we  are 
nowhere  authorised  to  say  there  can  be  no  religious  life 
except  as  the  direct  product  of  the  Christian  dogma  in  its 
entirety. 

40.  We  might,  if  space  permitted,  exhibit  largely 
another  class  of  cases,  where  the  receptiou  of  the  Gospel 
seems  to  be  determined  to  a  particular  and  by  no  means 
normal  form  of  conditions  of  personal  character.  There  is  a 
highly  popular  kind  of  Christian  teaching,  which  dwells 
more  or  less  congenially  within  the  precincts  of  various 
communions,  and  of  which  it  is  the  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic, that  while  it  retains  and  presents,  with  some 
crudity,  the  doctrine  of  the  Fall,  an  Atonement  by  sub- 
stitution, the  intensity  of  sin,  and  the  final  condemnation 
of  the  wicked,  it  reduces  the  method  of  deliverance  to  a 
formula  of  extreme  simplicity.  A  ccu'tain  reception  of 
Christ,  not  easy  to  describe  psychologically,  is  held  to  bo 
the  only  door  to  spiritual  life.  It  conveys  a  salvation  in 
itself  immediate  and  complete ;  and  not  only  entails  the 
obligation,  but  supplies  the  unfailing  motive  for  walking 
in  the  way  of  Christian  obedience  towards  moral  perfection. 
Parity  of  mind  and  natural  balance  of  character  supplied 
lis,  in  the  case  formerly  presented,  with  the  key  to  the 
problem  ;  whereas  the  doctrinal  scheme  now  before  us 
rather  commends  itself  to  those  who  are  suddenly  awakened 
to  a  sense  of  gross  neglect  or  transgression,  and  who  ai*e 


58  LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE    CONSORT 

in  this  sense  at  least  ehikllike,  that  the  elements  of  theii 
characters  are  few  and  simple,  and  their  minds  unused  to 
what  is  profound,,  or  delicate,  or  complex.  A  summary 
presentation  and  settlement,  so  to  speak,  of  the  religious 
account  between  God  and  the  soul,  is  that  which  most 
accords  with  the  general  form  of  their  mental  habits. 
These  two  distinct  modes  of  apprehending  religion,  so 
much  contrasted,  seem  to  have  in  common  the  important 
points  that  each  may  be  sincere,  and  for  the  individual 
efficient,  but  that  neither  have  the  solidity  necessary  for 
continuous  transmission :  and  the  likelihood  is,  that  a 
great  share  of  the  efficacy  they  possess  is  derived  from 
that  general  atmosphere  of  Christianity  in  which  we  live, 
and  much  of  which  we  may  unconsciously  and  without 
moral  choice  (Trpoat'peo-ts)  inhale. 

41.  We  proceed  to  quote  from  the  Speeches  a  passage 
addressed  to  a  conference  on  education  in  1857,  which 
distinctly  testifies  not  only  to  the  earnest  piety  of  the 
speaker,  but  to  his  clear  and  advised  convictions  : — 

"  Our  Heavenly  Fatlier,  in  His  boundless  goodness,  has  made 
his  creatures  tiiiit  they  shnuld  be  hap])y,  and  His  wisdom  lias  fitted 
His  means  to  His  ends,  giving  to  all  of  them  dilferent  faculties  and 
qualities,  in  using  and  developing  which  they  fuUil  their  destiny, 
and,  running  their  uniform  course  according  to  the  prescription, 
they  find  that  iiappiness  which  He  lias  intended  for  them.  Man 
alone  is  born  into  tliia  world  with  faculties  far  nobler  than  the 
other  creatures,  reflecting  the  image  of  Him  who  has  willed  that 
there  sl;ould  be  beings  on  earth  to  know  and  worship  Him,  but 
endowed  with  the  power  of  self-determination.  Having  reason 
given  him  for  his  guide,  he  can  develop  his  faculties,  place  himself 
in  harmony  with  his  Divine  prototype,  and  attain  that  haiii)ines3 
which  is  ofTcretl  to  him  on  earth,  to  be  compktrd  hercalter  in 
entire  union  with  Him  through  the  mercy  of  Chiist.  But  he  can 
also  have  tlie.se  faculties  unimproved,  nnd  mi>s  his  mission  on 
earth.     He  will  then  aink  to  tlie  level  of  the  lower  animals,  foifeit 


COUItT     OF    QTTEENVICTORIA.  59 

hafipiiK  ss,  and  scpnrate  from  his  God,  wlioin  he  did  not  know  liow 
to  lind."  * 

There  are  men  who  are  religious  hy  temperament, 
though  sceptical  in  their  intellect.  Such  was  not  the 
case  of  the  Prince.  He  had  been  trained  in  Germany 
under  influences  rather  of  the  rationalising  than  the 
orthodox  party,  but  his  religion  had  a  firm  ground,  as 
must  be  manifest  from  this  passage,  in  his  mind  not  less 
than  in  his  heart. 

42.  It  will,  moreover,  as  we  think,  be  observed  with 
pleasure  that  as  years  rolled  on,  though  the  flower  of  life 
was  still  in  full  blow,  an  increasing  warmth  of  tone 
pervaded  the  Prince's  sentiments  in  this  great  matter. 
On  an  occasion  secular  enough  for  such  as  are  disposed  so 
to  take  it,  namely,  that  of  presenting  colours  in  1859  to  a 
battalion  of  his  regiment,  he  breaks  forth  copiously  into 
terms  of  truly  Christian  and  paternal  affection  : — 

"May  God's  best  blessing  attend  you,  shield  you  from  danger, 
support  you  under  difficultie.s,  cheer  you  under  privations,  grant 
you  nioiieration  in  success,  contentment  under  discipline,  liumdity 
and  gratitude  towards  Him  in  prosperity."  * 

43.  More  than  thirteen  years  have  now  passed  since  the 
Prince  was  gathered  to  his  fathers :  and  his  character 
belongs  to  history.  To  such  a  man  it  is  no  compliment 
to  treat  of  him  in  a  strain  merely  courtly  and  eulogistic. 
He  will  shine  most  in  the  colours  which  the  truth 
supplies :  he  would  have  been  the  first  to  reject  adula- 
tion, and  to  disapprove  excess.  It  is  Init  the  naked  and 
cold  truth,  that  we  possessed  in  hiin  a  treasure;  that  he 
rais(>d  the  inlluence  and  usefulness  of  our  highest  institu- 
tion to  its  highest  point ;  and  that  society  has  suffered 


*  Speeches,  p.  191. 


60  LIFE    OF   TEE    PRINCE    CONSOUT 

heavily  from  the   slackening  of  the  beneficial  action  to 
which  he  so  powerfully  contributed. 

At  Windsor,  the  noblest  and  most  complete  of  all  the 
abodes  of  European  Eoyalty,  in  the  beautiful  chapel  built 
by  Henry  VII.  eastward  from  St.  George's,  and  after- 
wards given  to  AVolsey,  lies  the  effigy  of  the  Prince, 
which  Avill  probably  stand  with  the  public  and  with 
posterity  as,  in  a  proper  and  especial  sense,  his  monument. 
The  outlay  by  her  Majesty  upon  the  interior  of  the 
building  in  the  endeavour  to  bring  it  up  to  the  standard 
of  her  love,  must  have  been  very  large  ;  and  the  result  is 
that,  without  losing  its  solemnity,  it  has  attained  exceed- 
ing splendour.  Roof  and  floor,  walls  and  windows,  altar 
and  sedilia,  ancestral,  royal,  sacred  effigies,  marbles  sculp- 
tured and  inlaid  in  colour,  all  bear  the  stamp  of  a  more 
than  queenly  magnificence;  and  the  criticism  which  a 
very  few  points  might  invite  with  reference  to  the  details 
of  execution  may  be  omitted,  lest  it  should  jar  with  the 
conspicuous  and  noble  harmony  of  the  work  as  a  whole. 
The  pure  white  marble  figure  of  the  Prince  reposing  on 
his  altar-tomb,  amidst  all  these  glories,  vividly  presents 
the  image  of  his  stainless  character  and  life,  persistently 
exhi])itcd  through  all  the  sumptuous  fascination  and  array 
of  brilliancy  which  lay  along  his  earthly  path. 

44.  Over  the  tomb  of  such  a  man  many  tears  might 
fall,  but  not  one  could  be  a  tear  of  bitterness.  These 
examples  of  rare  intel]i.";cnces,  yet  more  rarely  cultivated, 
witli  tlieir  great  duties  greatly  done,  are  not  lights 
kindled  for  a  moment,  in  order  then  to  be  quenched  in 
the  blackness  of  darkness.  While  they  pass  elsewhere  to 
attain  their  consummation,  they  live  on  here  in  their 
good  deeds,  in  their  v(>iierated  memories,  in  their  fruitful 
example.     As  even  u  fine  figure  may  be  eclipsed  by  a 


COURT    OF    QUEEX    VICTORIA.  61 

gorgeous  costume,  so  during  life  tlie  splendid  accompani- 
ments of  a  Prince  Consort's  position  may  for  the  common 
eye  thro-'V  the  qualities  of  his  mind  and  character,  his 
true  humanity,  into  shade.  These  hindrances  to  effectual 
perception  are  now  removed ;  and  Ave  can  see,  like  the 
forms  of  a  Greek  statue,  sovei'ely  pure  in  their  hath  of 
southern  light,  all  his  extraordinary  gifts  and  virtues; 
his  manly  force  tempered  with  gentleness,  playfulness, 
and  love  ;  his  intense  devotion  to  duty  ;  his  pursuit  of  the 
practical,  Avith  an  unfailing  thought  of  the  ideal ;  his 
combined  allegiance  to  beauty  and  to  truth ;  the  elevation 
of  his  aims,  with  his  painstaking  care  and  thrift  of  time, 
and  methodising  of  life,  so  as  to  waste  no  particle  of  his 
appliances  and  powers.  His  exact  place  in  the  hierarchy 
of  bygone  excellence  it  is  not  for  us  to  determine ;  but 
none  can  doubt  that  it  is  a  privilege  which,  in  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  years,  but  rarely  returns,  to  find  such  graces 
and  such  gifts  of  mind,  heart,  character,  and  person 
united  in  one  and  the  same  individual,  and  set  so  steadily 
and  firmly,  upon  a  pedestal  of  such  giddy  height,  for  the 
instx' action  and  admiration  of  mankind. 


m. 

LIFE  OF  THE  PRIXCE  CONSORT. 

Vol.  II.     London,  1876.* 

1.  The  production  of  a  Biography  in  a  scries  of  single 
Volumes  Avould  not  commonly  be  a  safe  experiment  on 
the  appetite  or  patience  of  the  public.  But,  in  the  pre- 
sent instance,  reliance  may  be  placed  upon  an  interest 
sustained  and  stimulated  by  the  reason  of  the  case.  The 
whole  career  of  the  Prince  Consort,  and  the  free  exhibi- 
tion of  the  life  of  the  Sovereign  and  the  surroundings  of 
the  Throne,  which  the  work  has  involved,  form  a  picture 
which  must  bo  interesting,  so  long  as  Britons  conceive 
their  Monarchy  to  be  a  valuable  possession  ;  and  must  be 
edifying,  so  long  as  they  are  capable  of  deriving  benefit 
from  the  contemplation  of  virtue  thorouglily  "  breathed  " 
with  activity,  guided  by  intelligence,  and  uplifted  into 
el(;vated  station  as  a  mark  for  every  eye.  Mr.  Martin's 
handiwork  is  well  known  to  the  world.  It  neither  culls 
for  criticism,  nor  stands  in  need  of  commendation  by  way 
of  advertisement.  In  producing  all  that  can  give  interest 
to  his  subject,  free  scope  seems  to  have  been  judiciously 
allowed  him.  In  one  respect  only,  so  far  as  we  can 
judge,  he  has  been  rather  heavily  weighted  in  running 


*   Pulilishoil  in  tlie  Church  of  England  QuaHerlij  Eetiev:  for  January 
1877.     Republished  at  Leijizig,  1877. 


64  LIFE    OF   THE    PRINCE    CONSORT. 

his  race.  Perliaps  with  a  view  to  gratifying  the  taste  of 
J{oyal  and  ex-Royal  readers  from  Germany,  he  has  found 
it  needful  to  carry  his  readers  somewhat  freely  into  the 
labyrinthe  details  of  German  politics  during  the  years 
1848-50,  when  the  empire  was  in  embryo,  and  when 
the  attitudes  of  the  various  powers  and  influences  at  work 
were  imperfectly  developed,  and  for  the  most  part  neither 
dignified  nor  becoming.  The  Prince  took  an  active, 
almost  an  officious,  but  a  thoroughly  patriotic,  interest 
in  them ;  and  if  he  did  not  find  a  clew  to  guide  him 
through  the  windings,  or  disclose  any  signal  gift  of 
political  prophecy  in  what  he  wrote,  he,  at  least,  set  a 
good  example  in  his  disposition  to  cast  aside  the  incum- 
brances of  dynastic  prejudice,  and  to  hold  language  which 
had  justice  and  liberality  for  its  rule.  It  may  seem  singular, 
but  we  take  it  to  be  the  fact,  that  he  applies  a  stronger 
and  sharper  insight  to  the  Eastern  question,  as  it  emerged 
in  1853,  than  to  the  problems  offered  to  his  notice  by 
the  land  of  his  birth. 

2.  The  main  interest,  however,  of  this  Biography,  which 
is,  we  believe,  to  secure  for  it  a  place  in  our  permanent 
literature,  will  not,  perhaps  be  found  to  He  so  much  in 
the  treatment  of  this  or  that  current  question  of  its  time, 
as  in  the  figure  and  character  of  the  man,  as  a  man,  who 
is  its  subject;  in  the  light  it  throws  upon  the  difficult 
question  of  his  position  as  a  Prince  Consort,  and  in  the 
conti-iljution  it  supplies  towards  defining  tluit  important 
position  for  the  future  as  well  as  for  the  past. 

3.  The  excellence  of  the  Prince's  character  has  become 
a  commonplace,  almost  a  by- word,  among  us.  It  is  easy 
to  run  round  the  circle  of  his  virtues  ;  diffitult  to  find  a 
point  at  which  the  line  is  not  continuous.  He  was  with- 
out doubt  eminently  happy  in  the  persons  who  principally 


LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE    CONSOET,  C5 

contributed  from  without  to  develop  his  capacities,  and 
determine  his  mental  and  moral,  as  well  as  his  exterior, 
life ;  namely,  in  his  uncle,  his  tutor,  and  his  Wife.  13ut 
how  completely  did  the  material  answer  to  every  touch 
that  it  received  ;  how  full,  round,  and  complete  it  was, 
as  a  sculpture  ;  how  perseveringly  and  accurately  did  the 
Prince  apply  a  standing  genial  conception  of  duty  and 
action  to  the  rapid  stream,  it  might  be  said,  the  torrent,* 
of  the  daily  details  of  life ;  how  much  of  interest — amidst 
incessant  action,  and  without  the  tranquillity  necessary 
for  systematic  thought — he  presents  to  the  class  who  have 
no  taste  for  mere  action,  to  the  philosophic  student ;  how 
nearly  the  life  approximates  to  an  ideal ;  how  it  seems  to 
l;iy  the  foundations  for  a  class  and  succession  of  men,  if 
only  men  could  be  found  good  enough,  and  large  enough, 
to  l)uild  themselves  upon  it.  Mr.  Martin  has  been  im- 
pugned by  an  acute  writer*  for  the  uniformity  of  hia 
laudatory  tones.  Now,  doubtless,  it  would  be  too  much 
to  expect  a  drastic  criticism  of  the  Prince's  intellect  in  a 
work  produced  under  the  auspices  of  an  adoring  affection  ; 
l)ut  an  honest  impartiality  prompts  us  to  ask  whether  in 
the  ethical  pictxu'e  here  presented  to  us  there  really  is  a 
single  trait  that  calls  for  censure.  If  there  is  anything 
in  the  picture  of  the  Prince  that  directly  ii-ritates  the 
ci'itical  faculty,  is  it  not 

"That  fine  air; 

That  pure  severity  of  perfect  light,"t 

I 

which  was  insipid  to  Queen  Guinevere  in  the  heyday  of 
her  blood,  but  to  which  she  did  homage  when  the  equili- 
brium of  her  nature  was  restored  ? 

4.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Prince  will  be 


•  Nonconformiit,  Dec,  9,  1876.  f  Tennj-son's  '  Guinevere.' 

I.  F 


66  LIFE    OF   THE    rilllSrCE    COKSORT. 

remembered  in  future  generations  with  something  quite 
different  from  that  formal  and  titular  remembrance,  -which 
belongs  to  his  rank  in  its  relation  to  the  Throne,  and  which 
is  accorded  (for  example)  to  Prince  George  of  Denmark. 
There  has  not  yet  been  time  to  determine  his  exact  place 
among  the  "  inheritors  of  renown,"  fulfilled  or  unfulfilled.* 
The  silly  importunity  which  has  urged  Pope  Pius  IX.  to 
dub  himself  "The  Great"  was  doubly  wrong:  wrong,  as 
we  think,  in  urging  him  to  clutch  at  what  he  will  never 
get:  wrong,  beyond  all  question,  in  requiring  him  to 
fabricate  at  a  stroke  a  title  which  has  not,  and,  from  its 
nature,  cannot  have,  yet  inured :  inasmuch  as  it  can  only 
be  conferred  by  the  general  sense  of  an  impartial,  that  is, 
a  succeeding  age.*  For  it  is  thus  alone  that  the  phrase 
acquires  its  dignity  :  securus  judicat  orhis  terrarnm.  Ma- 
nufactured by  a  contemporary  clique,  it  is  entitled  to  no 
more  respect  than  the  forged  antiquities  which  are  daily 
passed  otf  upon  the  ravenous  appetite  of  collectors.  All 
that  we  can  venture  in  this  case  to  propound  is,  that,  with 
every  fresh  gush  of  light  upon  the  Prince's  personal  his- 
tory, there  is  a  corresponding  growth  in  his  claims  to 
admiration  and  celebrity,  and  an  intimation  of  his  finally 
taking  a  higher  rather  than  a  lower  place  among  the 
departed  sons  of  fame. 

5.  At  the  same  time,  it  would  probably  be  too  much  to 
hope  that  tbe  third  Volume  of  Mr.  Martin  will  raise  the 
Prince  above  the  second,  as  the  second  has,  we  think, 
raised  him  above  the  first.  The  period  of  the  Great 
Exbibition  of  1851,  which  entailed  upon  him  arduous  and 
constant  labour,  was  ].robably  the  climax  of  his  career. 
This  narrative  appears  to  establish  his  title  to  the  honours 

*  Sliellpy's'AJonais.' 


LIFE    OF   THE    riUNCE    CONSORT.  67 

of  its  real  origination.*  Its  nearest  analognc  in  past 
history  would  appear  to  have  been  the  Fi-auktbrt  fair  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  The  mischievous  system  of  nar- 
rowing the  usefulness  of  commerce  for  mankind  by  what 
was  called  Trotcction  had  not  then  been  methodised,  and 
the  productions  of  diffei'ent  coun4;ries,  where  adequate 
channels  were  open,  flowed  by  a  natural  process  to  a  com- 
mon centre.  But  great  discoveries  are  commonly  to  be 
found  in  germ,  either  unobserved  or  imperfectly  deve- 
loped, long  before  their  publication,  which  marks  the 
stage  of  maturity  in  their  idea,  and  makes  them  part  of 
the  general  property  of  mankind.  So  came  the  printing- 
press,  so  came  the  steam-engine ;  and,  in  this  sense,  when 
on  July  30,  1849,  twenty-one  months  before  the  opening, 
tiie  Prince  propounded  at  Buckingham  Palace  his  concep- 
tion of  the  Great  Exhibition,  as  it  might  be,  to  four  mem- 
bers of  the  Society  of  Arts,  he  established  his  title  to 
the  practical  authorship  of  no  small  design.  In  it  were 
comprised  powerful  agencies  tending  to  promote  the  great 
fourfold  benefit,  of  progress  in  the  industrial  arts,  of 
increased  abundance  or  diminished  stint  of  the  means  of 
living  among  men,  of  pacific  relations  between  countries 
founded  on  common  pursuits,  and  of  what  may  be  termed 
fi'ee  trade  in  general  culture. 

6.  It  was  a  great  work  of  peace  on  earth  :  not  of  that 
merely  diplomatic  peace  which  is  honeycombed  with  sus- 
picion, which  bristles  with  the  apparatus  and  establishments 
of  war  on  a  scale  tar  beyond  what  was  formerly  required 
for  actual  belligerence,  and  which  is  potentially  war, 
though  still  only  on  the  tiptoe  of  expectation  for  an 
actual  outbreak.     It  was  a  more  stable  peace,  found-jd  on 


*  Chap.  XXXV.  vol.  ii.  223-5. 

V  2 


68  LIFE    OF    THE    PKINCE    CONSOET. 

social  and  mental  unison,  which  the  Exhibition  of  1851 
truly,  if  circuitously,  tended  to  consolidate.  And  if, 
in  the  quarter  of  a  century  which  has  since  elapsed, 
counter  influences  have  proved  too  strong  for  the  more 
beneficial  agencies,  let  us  recollect  that  many  of  the 
wars  which  have  since  occurred  have  been  in  truth 
constructive  wars,  and  have  given  to  Europe  the  hope 
of  a  more  firmly  knit  political  organisation ;  further 
that,  even  if  this  had  not  been  so,  the  influences  of 
theory  and  practice  associated  with  the  Great  Exhibition 
would  still  have  earned  their  title  to  stand  along  with 
most  other  good  influences  in  the  world,  among  things 
valuable  but  not  sufiicient. 

7.  During  the  last  decade,  however,  of  his  years,  from 
1852  to  1861,  wars,  as  well  as  rumours  of  wars,  became 
the  engrossing  topic  of  life  and  thought  to  many  a  mind, 
which,  if  governed  by  its  own  promptings,  by  the  true 
direction  and  demand  of  its  nature,  would  have  battened 
only  on  the  pastures  of  national  union  and  concord. 
The  Crimean  "War,  taken  with  its  fore-  and  after-shadows, 
began  early  in  1853,  and  closed  in  1856;  it  was  followed 
by  the  Indian  Mutiny,  and  this  by  the  French  war  panic 
of  1858-60,  which,  more  than  any  other  cause,  encouraged 
as  it  was  by  no  small  authorities,  altered  the  disposition 
of  the  British  people  in  a  sense  favourable  to,  and  even 
exigent  of,  enlarged  military  and  naval  establishments. 
This,  Ave  think,  was  a  great  misfortune  to  the  Prince,  in 
regard  both  to  the  mental  movement  which  required  a 
congenial  atmosphere  and  exercise,  and  to  the  eventual 
greatness  which  would  have  been  its  natural  result.  He 
was  properly,  and  essentially,  a  man  of  peace.  The 
natural  attitude  of  his  mind  was  not  that  of  poh^mical 
action,  but  of  tranquil,  patient,  and  deliberate  tliought. 


IIFE    OF    THE    PRIXCE    CONSORT.  69 

It  was  as  a  social  philosoplier  and  hero  that  he  was 
qualified  to  excel,  rather  than  as  a  political  or  military 
atlilete.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  searching  fire  of 
continual  struggle  educated  those  Royal  persoiiages,  whose 
destiny  in  other  days  or  other  lands  has  lain  heyond  the 
precincts  of  the  Constitutional  system.  But  it  is  the 
very  pith  ami  essence  of  that  system  to  remove  from 
Sovereigns,  and  to  lay  upon  their  recog-niscd  and  official 
s(irvants,  the  heavier  portions  of  that  responsibility  and 
strain,  under  wliich  a  governing  will,  lodged  in  a  few 
human  brains,  or  in  one  only,  takes  up  into  itself,  and 
directs,  while  controlling,  the  collected  force  of  an  entire 
community.  Doubtless  even  now  Hoyalty — we  speak  of 
Constitutional  Hoyalty — acts  out  in  idea,  with  a  certain 
reality,  the  contentions  which  it  observes  and  superin- 
tends, and  with  which  at  particular  points  it  may 
actually  intermix  ;  but,  as  a  rule,  its  share  in  them  is 
an  indirect  and  mediate  share.  Princes  are  rather  moons 
than  suns  in  the  political  firmament ;  and  the  traufjiul 
atmosphere  in  which  they  dwell,  while  more  favourable 
in  some  of  its  aspects  to  a  reflective  and  impartial 
habit  of  mind,  is  not  calculated  to  foster  the  strongest 
tissue,  or  develop  the  hardiest  forms,  of  character. 
"NVliile  the  Peers  of  England  are  more  remote  than  the 
Parliamentaiy  Commoners  from  living  contact  with  the 
great  seething  mass  of  a  highly  vitalised  community, 
and  while  the  popular  House  must,  with  all  its  faults, 
remain,  so  long  as  the  Constitution  keeps  its  balance, 
our  highest  school  of  statesmanship,  so  the  Throne, 
though  vexed  more  than  enough  with  labours  and 
with  worries  of  its  own,  yet,  in  relation  to  the  sea  of 
political  stiifes,  remains  sheltered  within  an  inner  and 
landlocked  haven,  and  the  mental  habits  which  it   tends 


70  LIFE    OP   THE    PRINCE    CONSORT. 

to  generate  will  be  less  masculine  thougli  more  amiablo 
accordingly. 

S.  If  there  is  force  in  these  remarks,  they  will  apply 
scarcely  more  to  a  Constitutional  Sovereign  than  to  one 
who  attained  to  such  a  degree  of  moral  and  mental  identi- 
fication with  the  greatest  of  all  Constitutional  Soyereigiis 
as  did  the  Prince  Consort.  They  have  also  a  peculiar  and 
individual  application  to  a  mind  the  rich  gifts  of  which 
were  not  wayward  and  unruly,  but  fitted  themselves  at 
every  point  into  the  mould  sxipplied  for  them  l)y  his 
position,  and  became  in  consc(j^ucnce  an  admirable  and 
typical  example  of  what  that  position,  genially  appre- 
hended and  employed,  is  calculated  to  produce. 

In  this  view,  those  who  most  highly  estimate  the 
Prince's  work  may  well  regret  that  the  line  of  mental 
movement  represented  by  the  Great  Exhibition  came  soou 
to  be  deflected  towards  a  different  region  of  human  activity. 
In  that  region  mankind  at  large  is  at  once  excited  and 
morally  enfeebled  by  rivalries  and  conflicts  liardly  ever  in 
their  outset  generous,  and  marred  from  the  beginning  of 
the  world  by  their  tendency  to  degenerate,  from  their  first 
intentions,  in  the  direction  of  more  violent  and  wide- 
sweeping  passions,  more  greedy  selfishness,  and  deadlier 
feuds. 

9.  A  parallel  maybe  di-awn  between  the  Prince  Consort 
and  Mr.  Pitt,  in  regard  to  one  striking  characteristic  of 
their  respective  careers.  They  were  both  men  loving 
peace.  Each  of  them  began,  very  early  in  life,  to  hold  a 
position  of  liigh  command,  and  of  profound  importance  to 
the  public  welfare,  in  the  midst  of  pacific  ideas,  plans,  and 
expectations.  Each  of  them  achieved  a  reputation  of  the 
highest  order  in  connection  with  this  line  of  thought  and 
action.     Upon  each  of  them,  and  singularly  enough  upou 


LIFK    OF   THE    rrjXCE    CONSOET.  71 

each  of  tlicm  at  the  age  of  tliirty-threc,  there  fell  what, 
but  for  the  knowledge  that  in  all  mysteries  of  our  life 
there  lies  hid  hut  a  deeper  and  larger  Providence,  we 
might  call  an  ugly  trick  of  fortune ;  an  imperious  change, 
not  in  the  man,  hut  in  external  circumstances,  -wliicli 
overrule  the  man,  and  which  carry  him,  perforce,  out  of  a 
work  Avell  beloved,  and  more  than  well  begun,  into  a 
plac(!  and  function  of  opposite  couditiuns,  less  congenial, 
and  less  adapted  to  favour  the  development  of  his  chaiactcr 
by  leading  him  up  to  the  highest  point  of  its  capacity. 
Before  1853  England  had  only  to  look  with  sympathy 
upon  the  sufferings  and  disorders  of  the  Continent,  wliile 
she  watched  and  made  provision  for  her  own  internal 
condition.  But  from  that  day  until  the  sad  day  of  the 
Prince's  death,  slie  was  ever  in  actual  struggle,  or  in 
anticipation  of  struggles  deemed  probable  ;  and  this  great 
change  in  the  nature  of  the  cares  and  occupations  offered 
to  the  Prince,  in  the  normal  bill  of  fare,  so  to  speak,  made 
ready  for  him,  was  to  him  very  much  what  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  was  to  Mr.  Pitt.  With  a  diiference  indeed 
of  degree,  for  the  Prince  was  not  over-weighted  and 
absorbed  as  Mr.  Pitt  was  from  1793  onwnrds,  but  with  an 
identity  of  general  outline,  each  of  these  changes  broke  up 
the  perfect  harmony  that  subsisted  between  the  man  and 
his  occupation,  and  probably  abstracted  something  from 
the  ultimate  claims  of  each  to  pre-eminent  renown. 

10.  The  Prince's  life  from  day  to  day  was,  however,  not 
a  life  fashioned  by  haphazard,  but  one  determined  by  con- 
scientious premeditation.  Wliat  he  said,  he  had  usually 
written,  what  he  did,  he  had  projected.  When  an  impor- 
tant subject  presented  itself,  his  tendency  and  practice 
was  to  throw  his  thoughts  on  it  into  shape,  and  to  har- 
monise its  practical  bearings  with  some  abstract  principle. 


72  LITE    OF    THE    ritlNCE    CONSORT. 

Though  a  short,  it  was  a  very  full  and  systematic  life. 
So  regarding  it,  we  may  say  that  his  marital  relation  to 
the  Sovereign  found  a  development  outwards  in  three 
principal  respects.  First,  that  of  assistance  to  the  Queen 
in  her  public  or  political  duties.  Secondly,  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Court  and  household.  Thirdly,  in  a  social 
activity  addressed  to  the  discovery  of  the  wants  of  the 
community,  and  reaching  far  beyond  the  scope  of  Parlia- 
mentary interferences,  as  well  as  to  making  provision  for 
those  wants,  by  the  force  of  lofty  and  intelligent  example, 
and  of  moral  authority. 

11.  The  public  mind  had  for  the  moment  lost  its  balance 
at  the  particular  juncture  when,  for  the  first  time,  the  inter- 
vention of  the  Prince  in  public  affairs  became  a  subject  of 
animadversion.  It  was  at  the  beginning  of  1854,  during 
the  crisis  of  expectation  before  the  Crimean  War,  the 
calm  that  precedes  the  hurricane.  A  very  short  time,  and 
a  single  day  of  explanations  from  Lord  Aberdeen  and  Lord 
Russell,  then  the  leaders  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament, 
sufficed  to  set  right  a  matter  which  we  now  wonder  that 
any  should  have  had  either  the  will  or  the  power  to  set 
Avrong.  It  was  a  matter  of  course  that  the  Queen's  hus- 
band should  be  more  or  less  her  political  adviser.  It 
would  have  been  nothing  less  than  a  violence  done  to 
nature  if,  with  his  great  powers  and  congenial  will,  any 
limits  had  been  placed  upon  the  relations  of  confidence 
between  the  two,  with  respect  to  any  public  affairs  what- 
soever. Had  he  been  an  inferior  person,  his  interference 
would  doubtless  have  been  limited  by  his  want  of  capacity. 
Eut  he  being,  as  he  was,  qualified  to  examine,  cora])re- 
hend,  and  give  counsel,  the  two  minds  were  thrown  into 
common  stock,  and  worked  as  one. 

12.  We  must  go  one  step  further.     It  does  not  seem 


LIFE    OF    THE    PiaxCE    CONSOET.  73 

easy  to  limit  the  Sovereign's  right  of  taking  friendly 
counsel,  by  any  absolute  rule,  to  the  case  of  a  husband.  If 
it  is  the  Queen's  duty  to  form  a  judgment  upon  important 
proposals  submitted  to  lier  by  her  Ministers,  she  has  an 
indisputable  right  to  the  use  of  all  instruments  which  -will 
enable  her  to  discharge  that  duty  Avith  effect;  subject 
always,  and  subject  only,  to  the  one  vital  condition  that 
they  do  not  disturb  the  relation,  on  which  the  whole 
niachineiy  of  the  Constitution  hinges,  between  those 
]\linisters  and  the  Queen.  She  cannot,  thcTcfore,  as  a 
rule,  legitimately  consult  in  private  on  political  matters 
Avith  the  party  in  ojiposition  to  the  Government  of  the 
day ;  but  she  will  have  copious  public  means,  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  nation,  for  knowing  their  general 
views  through  Parliament  and  the  Press !  She  cannot 
consult  at  all,  except  in  the  strictest  secrecy :  for  the 
doubts,  the  misgivings,  the  inquiries,  which  accompany 
all  impartial  delil)eration  in  the  mind  of  a  Sovereign  as 
well  as  of  a  subject,  and  which  would  transpire  in  the 
course  of  promiscuous  conversation,  are  not  matters  fit  for 
exhibition  to  the  world.  The  dignity  of  the  Ci'own  requires 
that  it  should  never  come  into  contact  with  the  public,  or 
with  the  Cal)inet,  in  mental  dishabille  ;  and  that  the  words 
of  its  wearer  sliould  be  ripe,  well  considered,  few.  For  like 
reasons,  it  is  plain  that  the  Sovereign  cannot  legitimately 
be  in  confidential  communication  with  many  minds.  Xor, 
again,  with  the  representatives  of  classes  or  professions  as 
such,  for  their  views  are  commonly  narrow  and  self- 
centred,  not  freely  swayed,  as  they  ought  to  be,  by  the 
paramount  interests  of  the  wliole  body  politic. 

13.  We  have  before  us,  in  these  pages,  a  truly  nonnal 
example  of  a  personal  councillor  of  the  Queen,  for  ])ul)lio 
aif airs,  in  her  Husband ;  and  another,  hardly  less  normiJ,  in 


74  LIFE    OF    THE   PHINCE   GONSOKX. 

Stockmar.  Botli  of  them  observed  all  along  the  essential 
condition,  without  which  their  action  would  have  been 
not  only  most  perilous,  but  most  mischievous.  That  is  to 
say,  they  never  affected  or  set  up  any  separate  province 
or  authority  of  their  own ;  never  aimed  at  standing  as  an 
opaque  medium  between  the  Sovereign  and  her  Constitu- 
tional advisers.  In  their  legitimate  place,  they  took  up 
their  position  behind  the  Queen  ;  but  not,  so  to  speak, 
behind  the  Throne.  They  assisted  her  in  arriving  at  her 
conclusions ;  but  those  conclusions,  once  adopted,  were 
hers  and  hers  alone.  She,  and  she  only,  could  be  recog- 
nised by  a  Minister  as  speaking  for  the  Monarch's  office. 
The  Prince,  lofty  as  was  his  position,  and  excellent  as 
was  his  capacity,  vanished  as  it  were  from  \'icw,  and  did 
not,  and  could  not,  carry,  as  towards  them,  a  single  ounce 
of  substantive  authority.  If  he  conferred  with  Lord 
Palmerston  on  matters  of  delicacy,  belonging  to  the  rela- 
tion between  the  Sovereign  and  the  Secretary  of  State,  it 
could  only  be  as  the  Queen's  messenger,  and  no  word 
spoken  by  him  could  be  a  final  word.  Let  us  revert  to 
an  illustration  already  used.*  As  the  adjective  gives 
colour  to  the  substantive,  so  he  might  influence  the 
mind  of  the  Queen.  But  only  through  that  mind,  only  by 
informing  that  supreme  free-agency,  could  his  influence 
legitimately  act ;  and  this  doctrine,  we  apprehend,  is  not 
only  a  doctrine  wholesome  in  itself,  but  also  indisputable, 
nay,  wliat  is  more,  vital  to  the  true  balance  of  the  English 
Monarchy.  On  the  other  hand,  as  the  Queen  deals  with 
the  Caoiuet,  just  so  the  Cabinet  deals  with  the  Queen. 
The  Sovereign  is  to  know  no  more  of  any  dift'ering  views 
of  dilfcreiit  Ministers  than  they  are  to  know  of  any  col- 

*  Sup.  p.  33. 


LIFE    OF    TIIK    riilKCE    CONSOUT.  l  o 

lateral  rc])ix'st']itativcs  of  the  Munarcliicul  oflice ;  tliey  are 
an  unity  belbre  the  Sovereign,  and  the  Sovereign  is  an 
unity  before  them.  All  this,  it  will  be  observed,  is  not  a 
description  of  matters  of  fact,  but  a  setting  forth  of  wliut 
the  ])riucii)les  of  our  Monarchy  presui)pose ;  it  is  a  study 
from  the  closet,  not  the  forum  or  the  court;  and  it  would 
ha\e  been  more  convenient  to  use  the  masculine  gender  in 
speaking  of  an  abstract  occupant  of  the  Tlirone,  but  for 
the  fact  that  we  have  become  so  thoroughly  disused  to  it 
under  tlie  experience  of  forty  happy  years. 

14.  Steady  and  sound,  however,  as  would  appear  to  luive 
been  the  application  of  these  principles  to  practice,  on 
the  part  of  Baron  Stockmar,  and,  in  his  higlier  and  more 
difficult  position,  of  the  Prince,  we  take  leave  to  (lucstioii 
the  theoretic  representation*  set  forward  by  the  one  and 
accepted  by  the  other ;  as  well  as  countersigned  by  the 
biographer,  at  a  period  of  calm,  very  different  from  the 
political  weatlier  which  prevailed  at  the  moment  of  its 
production.  This  representatiun  is  conveyed  in  a  long 
letter,  dated  January  5,  1854,  and  consisting  of  two 
parts.  In  the  second  and  much  the  shorter  of  the  two,  it 
is  held  that  the  Prince  "  acts  as  the  Queen's  private 
secretary,  and  that  all  else  is  simply  calumnious";  and 
the  right  of  Her  Majesty  to  the  assistance  implied  under 
this  modest  name  is  justly  vindicated  (pp.  554-7).  Put 
the  first  portion  of  the  letter  contains  a  Constitutional 
dissertation,  Avhicli  was  in  no  manner  required  for  tlio 
support  of  these  rational  propositions,  and  which  is  based, 
as  we  think,  mainly  upon  misconception  and  confusion, 
such  as  we  should  not  have  expected  from  a  man  of  tho 
Paron's   long   Pritish  experience  and  acute  perceptions. 


Vol.  ii.  pp.  5(5-7. 


76  LIFE    OP   THE   PKINCE    OONSOET. 

His  main  propositions  appear  to  be  these  :  that  again  and 
again,  since  the  Ecforni  Act,  Ministers  have  failed  to 
sustain  the  prerogatives  of  the  Crown;  that  the  old  Tories, 
who  supported  these  prerogatives,  Avere  extinct,  and  that 
the  existing  Tories  were  (p.  546)  "  degenerate  bastards"; 
that  the  Whigs  and  "  politicians  of  the  Aberdeen  School" 
were  conscious  or  unconscious  republicans  ;  that  the  most 
jealous  Liberalism  could  not  object  to  "  a  right  on  the 
part  of  the  King  to  be  the  permanent  President  of  his 
Ministerial  Council"  (p.  547)  ;  that  Premiers  were  apt  to 
be  swayed  by  party  interests  ;  that  no  penalty  for  Minis- 
terial obliquities  now  remained  but  that  of  resignation  : 
that  this  was  insufficient  to  secure  good  conduct  from  the 
bad  or  the  incapable  ;  that  the  Sovereign  should  take  part 
at  the  deliberations  of  his  Council ;  that  the  centre  of 
gravity  had  been  shifted  by  the  Act  of  1832  from  the 
House  of  Lords  to  the  House  of  Commons ;  that  a  well- 
merited  popularity  of  the  Sovereign  was  to  support  the 
House  of  Lords  against  the  dangers  of  democracy,  and  his 
direct  action  in  tlie  Government  to  be  a  vis  medicatrix 
natures  (p.  551)  for  maintaining  prerogative,  and  for 
supplying  all  defects  by  a  judgment  raised  above  party 
passions.  Yet  the  right  of  the  Crown  is  to  be  merely 
moral  (p.  549) ;  and  in  the  face  of  it,  Ministers  would 
act,  as  to  their  [legislative  ?]  measures,  with  entire  free- 
dom and  independence  ;  but,  as  to  policy  and  administra- 
tion, tlio  Sovereign  is  primarily  chai'ged  witli  a  couti'ol 
over  them,  which  he  should  exercise  through  the  Premier 
(p.  549). 

15.  Thus  the  Earon.  A  congeries  of  propositions  stranger 
in  general  result  never,  in  our  judgment,  was  amassed  in 
ordiT  to  exjdain  to  the  unlearned  the  more  mysterious 
lessons  embraced  in  the  study  of  the  British  Monarchy. 


LIFE    OF   Til]':    rillNCE    CONSOKT.  tl 

Taken  singly,  some  of  them  are  truisms ;  some  are  qualifi- 
cations, -vrhich  usefully  restrain  or  neutralise  the  com- 
panion statements.  Some  also  are  misstatements  of 
history ;  others  of  fact.  Eor  example.  The  Parliamen- 
tary Constitution  had  its  centre  of  graA'ity  in  the  Ilouso 
of  Commons,  not  in  the  House  of  Lords,  before,  as  well  as 
after,  the  Reform  Act.  The  House  of  Lords,  in  fact,  has 
resisted  the  will  of  the  House  of  Commons  since  the 
Reform  Act,  more  than  it  did  before  the  passing  of  that 
great  statute.  The  gravest  change,  then,  effected  in  re- 
gard to  the  House  of  Lords,  was  this :  that,  under  the 
old  system,  the  Peers  had  in  their  own  hands  the  virtual 
appointment  of  a  large  section  of  the  House  of  Commons  ; 
whereas  now,  although  their  influence  in  elections  is  still 
great,  it  is  exercised  through  and  by  what  is  supposed  to 
be,  and  in  general  is,  a  popular  and  voluntary  vote.  The 
Reform  controversy  was  admirably  argued  on  both  sides ; 
not  perhaps  worse  on  the  side  of  the  op]ioncnts  of  Refoz'm; 
some  of  whom,  following  up  a  subtle  disquisition  of 
philosophical  polities,  set  out  in  a  previous  number  of  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  pointed  out  unanswerably  that  singular 
economy,  by  which  the  old  close  boroughs  had  cusliioncd 
off,  as  it  were,  the  conflicts  between  the  two  Houses ;  and 
then  predicted  with  truth,  though  likewise  with  exagger- 
ation, that  when  once  the  House  of  Lords  ceased  to 
assert  and  express  itself  by  this  peculiar  method  within 
the  House  of  Commons,  it  would  be  driven  upon  the 
alternative  of  more  frequently  pronouncing  an  adverse 
judgment. 

16.  Again,  Baron  Stockmar  teaches  that  the  prerogatives 
of  the  Crown  had  been  abandoned  by  successive  Ministries, 
and  had  no  longer  any  party  ready  to  defend  them.  It 
"\\  oiild  be  much  nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  there  was  no 


;  8  LIFE   OF   THE   PHINCE    CONSOET. 

longer  any  party  disposed  to  assail  them.  But  what 
means  the  Earon  hy  "the  prerogatives  of  the  Crown"? 
Are  they  prerogatives  as  against  the  Ministers?  or  pre- 
rogatives as  against  the  Parliament,  or  the  popiilar  hranch 
of  it  ?  As  against  the  Ministers,  the  Sovereign's  pre- 
rogatives hefore  the  Reform  Act  were :  firstly,  that  of 
appointing  and  dismissing  them ;  secondly,  that  of  ex- 
ercising an  influence  over  their  deliberations,  which  was, 
as  the  Baron  says,  in  one  of  his  qualifying  passages,  in  the 
nature  of  a  moral  right  or  influence.  The  first  of  these 
is  virtually  a  right  of  appeal  from  the  Cabinet  to  the 
Parliament,  or  the  nation,  or  both  :  and  no  such  con- 
spiciious  instance  of  its  exercise  can  be  cited  from  our 
pre-lleform  history  as  was  supplied  by  William  IV.  after 
the  lleform  Act,  in  the  month  of  November  1834,  Avitli 
no  sort  of  reason  and  (it  is  true)  without  success,  but  also 
without  any  strain  to  the  Constitution,  or  any  penalty 
other  than  the  disagreeable  sensation  of  being  defeated, 
and  of  having  greatly  strengthened  and  reinvigorated  by 
recoil  the  fortunes  of  the  party  *  on  whom  it  had  been 
meant  to  inflict  an  overthrow.  As  regards  the  prerogative 
or  power,  which  gives  the  Monarch  an  undoul)ted  locus 
standi  in  all  the  deliberations  of  a  Government,  it  remains 
as  it  was ;  and  it  is  important  or  otherwise,  exactly  in 
proportion  to  the  ability,  the  character,  the  experience, 
and,  above  all,  the  attention,  which  the  Sovereign  of  the 
day  brings  to  bear  upon  it. 

17.  If  there  be  differences,  they  are  not  at  all  the 
differences  which  Baron  Stockmar  indicates.  It  is,  indeed, 
certain  that  the  Monardi  has  to  deal  Avith  the  popular 
power  in  a  proximate  instead  of  a  remote  position  :  but  sc; 


Sup.  p.  38,  inf.  p.  325. 


LIFE    OF   THE    rrjNCE    COXSOET.  79 

have  the  Ministers.  It  is  likewise  true,  that  there  was 
once  a  party  of  King's  friends  (as  well  as  a  large  number 
of  tlie  nominees  of  Peers)  within  the  House  of  Commons, 
by  means  of  whom  he  could  operate  to  a  certain  extent, 
in  an  unavowed  manner,  upon  or  against  his  Ministers. 
But  of  this  party  we  lose  all  trace  after  the  reign  of 
George  III.  ;  so  that  it  supplies  no  standing  ground  for 
the  Earon.  It  is,  perhaps,  also  true  that  the  subordination 
in  the  last  resort  of  the  lloyal  to  the  national  will,  when 
expressed  through  the  Constitutional  organs,  whicli  was 
fact  before  the  Reform  Eill,  has  been  more  patent  and 
admitted  fact  since  that  measure  became  law.  The  dying 
throes  of  independent  Kingship  gave  for  a  moment  a  real 
l)ang  to  the  self-centred  mind  of  George  lY.,  and  even 
impaited  a  certain  interest  to  his  personality,  when  after 
many  struggles  he  consented  or  gave  way  to  the  Bill  for 
lloinan  Catholic  Emancipation  in  1829, 

18.  Baron  Stoekmar,  however,  appears  to  confuse  the 
prerogatives  of  the  Crown,  which  are  really  represented  by 
Ministerial  action  in  the  face  of  the  Legislature,  with  the 
personal  rights  of  the  Sovereign  in  the  face  of  and  as 
towards  his  or  her  Ministers.  And  here  the  (piostion 
must  be  cleared  by  another  distinction,  of  which,  in  this 
rather  confused  and  very  disappointed  letter,  he  takes  no 
notice :  the  distinction  between  the  statutory  powers  of 
the  Crown  and  those  immemorial  and  inhc^rent  powers, 
•which  have  no  written  warrant,  which  form  the  real 
and  genuine  prerogative,  and  which  also  form  a  great 
oral  tradition  of  the  Constitution  :  resembling  in  their 
unwritten  character  what  is  called  the  privilege  of  Parlia- 
ment,  but  differing  from  it  in  that  tbey  are  perfectly  well 
defined.  In  the  mouth  of  Baron  Stockmar,  tlie  plural 
word  Prerogatives   appears   to    include   both   classes    of 


80  LIFE    or   THE   PraNCE   CONSOET. 

these  powers,  which  only  ignorance  can  confuse,  though 
sometimes,  even  in  high  official  places,  ignorance  does 
effectually  confuse  them.  Accepting  the  phi'ase  for  the 
moment,  we  ask  which  of  these  statutory  prerogatives 
have,  since  the  E,eform  Act,  been  forfeited  or  impaired 
through  the  timidity  of  the  Governments  down  to  1854, 
or,  we  might  perhaps  add,  of  succeeding  Governments  ? 
The  question  is  most  important,  for,  by  dint  of  the 
prerogative  proper,  and  of  these  statutory  powers,  the 
Ministers,  sustained  as  they  are  by  the  Sovereign  behind 
them,  form  a  great  part,  not  only  of  the  executive  or 
deputed,  but  of  the  ultimate  and  supreme  governing  foi'ce 
in  tliis  country. 

19.  In  order  to  test  the  doctrine  of  Baron  Stockmar, 
lot  us  enumerate  some  examples  of  the  vigour  of  the 
powers  of  the  Crown.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the 
great  prerogative  of  dismissal  of  Ministers  as  it  was  illus- 
trated in  1834.  Surely  the  prerogative  of  appointment 
of  Bishops  sufficiently  proved  its  animation,  against  the 
remonstrance  of  the  Primates  and  a  body  of  their 
Suffragans,  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Hampden.  The  prero- 
gative of  peace  and  war  did  the  same  in  1857,  when  Lord 
Palmcrston  carried  on,  at  the  charge  of  the  country,  a 
war  in  China,  which  the  representatives  o£  the  people, 
the  stewards  of  the  public  purse,  had  condemned.  It 
was  only  upon  the  general  election  to  which  he  had 
recourse  that  he  received  the  sanction  of  the  country  for 
what  he  had  done.  And  tlic  prerogative  of  dissolution 
must  have  been  in  a  healthy  state  in  1852  to  enable  a 
Government,  supported  only  by  a  minority,  to  perform 
tlie  work  of  the  session,  and  to  carry  the  Supplies,  before 
asking  the  judgment  of  the  constituencies  on  its  title  to 
exist. 


LIFE    OF   THE    PIUNCE    CONSORT.  81 

20.  There  is,  indeed,  but  one  preroj^ativc  of  the  Crown, 
so  far  as  we  are  able  to  read  the  Constitutional  history  of 
tlie  country,  or  rather  but  one  of  any  groat  sif^nificance, 
which  has  suffered  of  late  years.  It  is  the  initiative  iu 
proposing  grants  of  public  money.  This  prerogative,  if 
such  it  is  to  be  called,  has  been  seriously  and  increasingly 
infringed,  to  the  great  detnraent  of  the  nation.  And  tliis 
by  a  double  process.  The  House  of  Commons  was  very 
rarely  disposed,  before  the  Reform  Act,  to  press  upon  the 
Administration  of  the  day  new  plans  or  proposals  involv- 
ing public  outlay.  After  the  lleform  Act,  there  was 
manifested  a  vicious  tendency  to  multiply  these  instances, 
-which,  however,  produced  no  very  serious  consequences 
for  the  first  twenty  or  twenty-five  years,  but  which  has 
become  a  great  public  mischief,  since  the  increasing 
wealth  of  the  most  active  and  influential  classes  of  the 
country  has  brought  about  a  greater  and  wider  indifl'er- 
ence  to  economy  in  the  public  expenditure.  Local  claims, 
and  the  interests  of  classes  and  individuals,  are  now 
relentlessly  and  constantly  pressed  from  private  and  irre- 
sponsible quarters  ;  and  though  the  House  of  Commons 
still  maintains  the  rule  that  money  shall  not  be  voted 
except  on  the  proposal  of  the  Crown,  yet  it  permits  itself 
to  be  pledged  by  Addresses,  Resolutions,  and  even  the 
language  of  Eills  and  Acts,  to  outlay  in  many  forms,  and 
these  pledges  it  becomes  morally  compulsory  on  Govern- 
ments in  their  turn  to  redeem. 

21.  But,  in  addition  to  the  activity  of  private,  pro- 
fessional, and  local  greed,  and  the  possible  cowardice  of 
Ministers  in  resistance,  it  must  be  noted  that  the  House 
of  Lords  has  done  very  great  mischief  in  this  respect,  by 
voting  into  Bills  the  establishment  of  officers  and  appoint- 
ment of  salaries,  and  sending  these  Bills  to  the  Commona 

I.  o 


82  LITE    OF    THE    TEIXCE    CONSORT. 

•with  all  such  portions  printed  in  italics,  a  conventional 
expedient  adopted  in  order  to  show  that  they  are  not  pre- 
sented as  parts  of  the  Bill,  but  only  as  indications  of  the 
view  or  wish  of  the  House  of  Lords  ;  in  matters,  however, 
in  which  they  have  as  a  body  no  more  right  or  title  to  any 
view  or  wish  at  all,  than  the  House  of  Commons  has  or 
had  to  send  in  italics,  or  by  any  subterfuge,  to  the  Lords 
a  direction  as  to  the  judgments  to  be  given  in  appeals. 
Here,  then,  we  have  a  real  case  in  which  a  power  of  the 
Crown  has  been  greatly  and  mischievously  weakened. 
But  this  is  a  power  which  probably  forms  no  part  of 
prerogative  properly  so  called.  "VVe  apprehend  that  it 
rests  upon  no  statute,  but  only  on  a  wise  and  self-denying 
rule  of  the  House  of  Commons  itself.  The  Crown,  as 
such,  has  no  immediate  intez'est  in  it  whatever ;  and  there 
is  not  the  smallest  reason  to  suppose  that  Baron  Stockmar 
knew  to  what  solid  truth  in  this  one  respect  he  was 
giving  utterance,  or  that  he  in  any  way  cared  about  the 
matter. 

22.  There  is,  indeed,  one  genuine  Crown  right  which 
has  been  somewhat  disparaged  of  late  years ;  and  that  is 
its  title  to  the  Crown  Lands.  By  degrees,  it  became  the 
custom  for  the  Sovereign,  on  accession,  to  surrender  the 
life-interest  in  those  properties  to  the  State,  in  return  for 
a  life-income  called  the  Civil  List.  But  this  transaction  in 
no  way  affected  the  legal  right  of  the  next  heir  to  resume 
the  lands  on  the  expiry  of  the  aiTangemcnt.  It  is 
undeniable  that  members  of  Oppositions,  and  the  blamable 
connivances  of  party,  have  of  late  years,  in  vaiious 
instances,  obtained  by  pressure  from  the  Governments  of 
the  day  ari'angemcnts  Avhich  touch  the  reversionary 
iuterost.  The  qu(>stion  is  too  oom])lex  and  m;my-sidcd 
for  exposition  here  :    but  it  may  be  said  with  truth,  first, 


LIFE    OF    TnF>    PRINCK    CONSORT.  83 

that  the  state  has  dealt  liberally  as  a  tenant  inulcr  a  life- 
Iciise  with  the  estates  given  to  its  control ;  and,  secondly, 
that  the  suhjcct  is  in  a  Constitutional  -view  a  small  one. 
Neither  shall  we  here  investigate  the  curious  doctrine — 
in  one  sense  novel,  and  in  another  obsolete — of  those  who 
contend  that  the  Sovereign  has  a  peculiar  relation  to  the 
AjTuy,  involving  some  undefined  power  apart  or  different 
from  its  general  relation  to  the  executive  portion  of  the 
business  of  government.  We  shall  only  observe  that,  in 
this  country,  the  standing  Army  is  itself  extra-Constitu- 
tional, and  that  its  entire  dependence  upon  Parliament 
has  been  secured,  not  as  in  the  case  of  the  Civil  Services 
by  a  single  provision,  that  of  requiring  annual  votes  for 
its  support ;  but  also  by  the  further  precaution  of 
granting  only  by  annual  Mutiny  Acts  those  powers  for 
enforcing  discipline  which  are  necessary  for  its  manage- 
ment. Not  even  a  colourable  plea  can  be  set  up  for  an 
exceptional  power  or  prerogative  in  respect  to  the  Anuy. 
23.  As  to  the  occasion  of  Baron  Stockmar's  letter  to 
the  Prince,  the  truth  seems  to  have  been  this :  A  most 
unreasonable  and  superficial  clamour  had  been  raised 
against  the  intervention  of  the  Prince  as  a  counsellor,  an 
adviser,  in  the  performance  of  the  Queen's  public  duties : 
a  clamour  due  to  the  peculiar  susce})tibilities  of  his  time, 
the  aberration  of  a  portion  of  the  press,  and  the  very 
undue  disposition  of  what  is  questionably  called  "good 
society  "  to  canvass  in  an  ill-natured  manner  the  character 
and  position  of  one  who  did  not  stoop  to  flatter  its  many 
vulgar  fancies,  and  whose  strictly  ordered  life  was  a 
continual  though  silent  rebuke  to  the  luxurious  licence 
that  large  portions  of  it  love  and  habitually  indulge  in. 
Instead  of  dealing  with  this  practical  matter  in  a  practical 
manner,  Bai'on  Stockmar  was  unhappily  tempted  to  stray 

Q  2 


84  LIFE    OF   THE   TEIKCE   CONSOET. 

iuto  the  flowery  fields  of  theory.  S^avib  sui  floridi 
sentier.'^  His  Constitutional  knowledge,  apart  from  liis 
working  common-sense,  which  he  did  not  think  good 
enough  for  so  high  an  occasion,  was,  after  all,  only  an 
English  top-dressing  on  a  German  soil :  and  hence  he  has 
given  a  perfectly  honest  hut  a  most  misleading  exposition 
of  a  great  subject,  highly  needful  to  be  rightly  appre- 
hended everywhere,  and  of  course  most  of  all  in  Courts. 

24.  One  of  his  propositions  is  that  the  King,  if  a  clever 
man — for  so  (p.  549)  it  seems  to  be  limited,  and  we  do 
not  envy  those  who  would  have  to  pronounce  the  decision 
"Ay"  or  "No"  upon  the  point,  nor  indeed  do  we 
know  who  they  are — shall  "  make  use  of  these  qualities 
at  the  deliberations  of  his  Council."  Now  this,  to  speak 
with  a  rustic  plainness,  is  simply  preposterous.  We  take 
first  the  ground,  which  would  be  called  the  lowest.  If 
the  Sovereign  is  to  attend  the  Cabinet,  he  must,  like 
other  Cabinet  Ministers,  adapt  his  life  to  its  arrangements, 
spend  most  of  the  year  in  London,  and  when  in  the  country 
be  always  ready  to  return  to  it  at  a  moment's  notice. 
Perhaps  it  may  be  thought  that,  as  would  be  only  seemly, 
Cabinets  could,  as  a  rule,  be  postponed  to  suit  the  con- 
venience of  so  august  a  personage.  It  would  be  almost 
as  easy  to  postpone  the  rising  of  the  sun.  But  let  us 
suppose  him  there,  not  on  his  throne,  but  in  his  arm- 
chair. He  must  surely  preside ;  and  in  that  case  wliat 
becomes  of  the  First  Minister  ?  It  is  a  curious,  but  little 
observed,  fact  of  our  history,  that  the  ofiice  of  First 
Minister  only  seems  to  have  obtained  regular  recognition 
as  the  idea  of  personal  government  by  the  action  of  the 
King  faded  and  became  invisible.     So  late  as  in  the  final 


•  Manzoni,  '  CiiKjue  JIaggio.' 


LIFE   OF   THE   PHINCE    CONSORT.  85 

attacks  upon  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  it  was  one  of  tlie 
charges  against  him  that  he  had  assumed  the  functions  of 
First  Minister.  The  presence  of  the  King  at  the  Cabinet 
either  means  personal  government — that  is  to  say,  the 
reservation  to  hira  of  all  final  decisions  which  he  may 
think  fit  to  appropriate — or  else  the  forfeiture  of  dignity 
by  his  entering  upon  equal  terms  into  the  arena  of 
general,  searching,  and  sometimes  warm  discussion ;  nay, 
and  even  of  voting,  too,  and  of  being  outvoted,  for  in 
Cabinets,  and  even  in  the  Cabinets  reputed  best,  impoi-t- 
ant  questions  have  sometimes  been  found  to  admit  of  no 
other  form  of  decision. 

25.  Now  such  is  the  mass,  detail,  and  technical  diffi- 
culty of  public  affairs  in  this  great  Empire,  that  it  would 
be  an  absolute  cruelty  to  the  Sovereign  to  put  him  through 
these  agonies;  for  it  is  no  trifiing  work  and  pain  to 
hammer  into  form  the  measures  and  decisions  which  are, 
when  promulgated,  to  endure  the  myriad-minded,  myriad- 
pointed  criticism  of  the  Parliament,  the  press,  and  the 
country.  At  present,  the  Sovereign  is  brought  into 
contact  only  with  the  net  results  of  previous  inquiry  and 
deliberation,  conducted  by  other  and,  as  the  Constitution 
presumes,  by  select  men.  The  Baron's  proposal  is  to 
immerse  him  in  the  crude  mass  of  preliminary  pleas  and 
statements,  to  bring  him  face  to  face  with  every  half- 
formed  Anew,  to  compel  him  to  deal  with  each  plus  and 
minus  known  and  unknown,  quantity  in  and  by  itself, 
instead  of  submitting  to  him  only  the  ascertained  sum  of 
the  equations.  The  few  remarks  now  offered  are  far  indeed 
from  exhibiting  exhaustively  the  huge  demerits  of  this 
unwise  proposal ;  but  they  may  serve  to  prove  or  indicate 
that  either,  while  intolerably  cumulating  labour,  it  must 
Borely  impair  dignity  and  authority ;  or,  if  it   aims  at 


86  LIFE    OF   THE    FEINCE    COIS'SOET. 

preserving  these,  the  end  can  only  be  gained  by  making 
the  King  the  umpire  and  final  arbiter  of  deliberations,  to 
"which  he  listens  only  for  the  assistance  of  his  own  judg- 
ment. That  is,  they  not  simply  alter,  but  overturn,  the 
Constitution,  by  making  a  personal  will  supreme  over  the 
ascertained  representative  will  of  the  nation. 

26.  If,  however,  the  ofiice  of  the  First  Minister  would 
have  suffered  by  the  last-named  proposal,  it  seems  that 
compensation  was  to  be  given  him  at  the  expense  of  his  col- 
leagues. We  shall  not  record  any  dissent  from  the  general 
view  of  the  remarkable  controversy  between  the  Crown, 
or  Court,  and  Lord  Palmerston ;  which  is  to  the  eifect 
that,  in  the  main,  the  Sovereign  was  right  in  demanding 
time  and  opportimity,  of  course  with  a  due  reserve  for  the 
exigencies  of  urgent  business,  for  a  real,  and  not  merely  a 
perfunctory,  consideration  of  draft  despatches.  But  with 
this  there  seems  to  have  been  combined  a  demand  that 
the  drafts  of  the  Foreign  Minister  should  be  submitted  to 
the  SovcreigTi  only  through  the  head  of  the  Government. 
It  is  laid  down  (p.  300)  tliat  the  First  jMinistcr,  as  well  as 
the  Foreign  Secretary,  is  bound  to  advise  the  Crown  on 
questions  of  Foreign  policy;  and,  we  are  told,  it  was 
accordingly  demanded  (p.  302) — 

"  Thfit  the  despatches  submitted  for  her  approval  must  therefore 
pass  Ihrough  tlie  hands  of  Tjord  Jnhn  RusscH,  who,  if  he  slumlil 
think  tliey  required  material  change,  should  accompany  tliem  with 
a  statLment  of  his  reasons." 

27.  It  is  unquestionable  that  the  Prime  Minister,  who  is 
entitled  to  interfere  with,  and  in  a  well-organised  Cabinet 
is  constantly  invoked  by,  every  Department,  has  a  special 
concern  in  Foreign  affairs.  lie  will,  therefore,  have  some- 
thing to  say  upon  the  drafts  prepared  b}'  his  colleague* 


IIFE    OF   TEE    PEmCE    CONSOET.  87 

But  tliis,  according  to  the  soimd  law  of  established  prac- 
tice, he  will  say  to  his  colleague ;  and  the  draft,  as  it  goes 
to  the  Sovereign,  will  express  their  united  view.  Instead 
of  this,  the  proposal  seems  to  have  been  that  the  di'afts 
prepared  by  the  Foreign  Minister  should  be  discussed  and 
settled  between  the  Prime  Minister  and  the  Sovereign. 
Now  almost  any  system  nlay  be  made  workable  by  con- 
siderate and  tender  handling ;  but  the  method  now  before 
us,  issuing  as  a  hard  abstraction,  would  justly  be  said  to 
degrade  an  office  of  a  dignity  and  weight  second  to  none 
after  that  of  the  Head  of  the  Government.  The  transmis- 
sion through  the  First  Minister  seems  indeed  to  have  been 
agreed  to,  wrongly  as  we  think,  by  Lord  Palmcrston 
(p.  309) ;  and  Stockmar  in  his  ^[cmurandum  apparently 
extends  this  system  to  all  the  Ministers,  for  he  says  that 
the  control  of  the  Sovereign  would  be  "exercised  most 
safely  for  the  rest  of  them  through  the  Premier."  Tims 
tlie  Premier  would  stand  between  them  and  the  Sovereign. 
The  Baron  failed  to  perceive  that  this  involves  a  funda- 
mental change  in  their  position  :  their  relations  to  the 
Crown  become  mediate  instead  of  immediate ;  they  are  no 
longer  the  confidential  servants  of  Her  Majesty ;  he  is  the 
sole  confidential  servant,  they  are  the  head  clerks :  he  is 
in  the  closet,  they  stand  in  the  hall  without. 

28.  To  some  readers  these  may  appear  to  be  mere  subtle- 
ties. They  certainly  escaped  eyes  of  great  acuteness  when 
those  of  the  Prince  Consort,  and  of  Bai'on  Stockmar,  passed 
over  them.  But  eveiy  trade  has  its  secrets.  The  baker  and 
the  brewer,  the  carpenter  and  the  mason,  all  the  fraternity 
of  handicraft  and  production,  have,  where  they  understand 
tlieir  business,  certain  nice  minutioi  of  action,  neither  in- 
telligible to  nor  seen  by  the  observer  from  without,  but 
upon  which  niceties  the  whole  efficiency  of  their  work, 


88  LIPE    OF   THE    PEIXCE    COJfSOKT. 

and  the  just  balances  of  its  parts,  depend.  There  is  no- 
where a  more  subtle  machinery  than  that  of  the  British 
Cabinet.  It  has  no  laws.  It  has  no  records.  Of  the  few 
who  pass  witliin  the  magic  circle,  and  belong  to  it,  many 
never  examine  the  mechanism  which  thoy  help  to  work. 
Only  the  most  vague  conceptions  respecting  its  structure 
and  operations  are  afloat  in  the  public  mind.  These 
things  may  be  pretty  safely  asserted :  that  it  is  not  a 
thing  made  to  order,  but  a  growth ;  and  that  no  subject  of 
equal  importance  has  been  so  little  studied.  We  need  not 
wonder  if  even  to  the  most  intelligent  foreigner,  who  gets 
it  up  as  a  lesson  from  a  school-book,  it  is  an  unsolved 
riddle.  "VVe  may  be  thankful  that  the  mistaken  reasouiugs 
of  Baron  Stockmar  never  baffled  his  good  sense  in  practical 
advice,  and  that  his  balloon,  even  after  careering  wildly 
in  the  fields  of  air,  always  managed,  when  about  alighting 
on  the  earth,  to  find  its  way  home. 

29.  We  will  now  turn  to  another  chapter,  where  Mr, 
Martin  deals  with  the  Papal  Aggression,  and  with  the 
thoughts  which  the  controversy  at  that  time  stirred 
in  the  mind  of  the  Prince.  He  went  to  work,  as  his 
manner  was,  to  "analyse"  (p.  341)  the  crisis,  in  its 
Anglican  rather  than  in  its  Eomeward  aspect,  with 
philosophical  assiduity ;  and  he  laid  down  the  principles 
which  he  conceived  to  indicate  the  true  path  towards  a 
remedy. 

The  evil  he  conceived  to  be  the  introduction  of  Eomish 
doctrines  and  practices  by  the  Clergy  against  the  will  of 
their  congregations,  under  the  assumption  of  a  sole  autlio- 
rity.  And  the  cure  he  found  in  three  propositions,  thus 
expressed  (p.  343)  : — 

"  Tliat  the  Lnity  have  an  equal  share  of  authority  in  the  Church 
with  the  Clergy, 


LIFE    OF   TnE    PRINCE    COXSOKT,  89 

"  That  no  altoration  in  the  form  of  Divine  Service  shall  there- 
fore be  made  without  the  formal  consent  of  the  Laity. 

"  For  any  interpretation  given  of  Articles  of  Faith  without 
their  concurrence." 

From  these,  he  thought,  ■woulcl  spring  a  "  whole  living 
Church  constitution,"  in  government  and  doctrine. 

30.  Of  these  propositions  we  put  aside  the  first,  not  only 
because  it  is  expressed  without  historical  or  theological 
precision,  but  also  and  mainly  because  it  is  an  abstraction. 
Nor  need  we  dwell  upon  the  third,  because,  after  another 
quarter  of  a  century's  experience,  it  has  not  been  thoi;ght 
necessary,  either  by  Laity  or  Clergy,  to  call  for  any  new 
interpretation  of  xVrticles  of  Faith.  But  the  second  touches 
a  matter  Avhicli  has  invited  legislative  handling — namely, 
"  the  form  of  Divine  Service."  And  the  readers  of  Mr. 
Mai'tin  will  at  once  be  struck  with  the  glaring  fact,  that 
the  basis  for  legislation  Avhich  was  suggested  by  the 
Prince  is  totally  diifercnt  from  that  which  was  accepted 
by  Parliament  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Archbishops 
and  the  Earl  of  Peaconsfield.  Nor  is  the  difference  of  a 
speculative  character ;  the  lines  on  which  the  two  work 
out  their  results  are  lines  which  cut  across  one  another. 
In  making  good  this  proposition,  we  shall  assume,  of 
course — but  it  is  a  very  large  and  generous  assumption — 
that  the  Act  will  be  both  impartially  and  learnedly  worked 
by  the  tribunals.  So  regarding  it,  we  observe  that  the 
very  rule  which  the  Prince  sets  up,  the  Archbishops  and 
the  Prime  Minister  have  induced  Parliament  to  trample 
under  foot.  The  rule  of  the  Prince  is  that  existing  prac- 
tice is  so  far  to  be  presumed  right  practice  that  it  shall 
not  be  altered  without  consent  of  Laity  and  Clergy.  The 
basis  of  the  Act  is  that  existing  practice,  however  esta- 
blished by  length  of  time,  and  however  acceptable  both 


90  LIFE    OF   THE    PEIJS^CE    CONSOET. 

to  Laity  and  Clergy,  may  at  any  time  be  challenged  by 
three  parishioners,  who  may  never  have  even  seen  the 
inside  of  the  church  as  "worshippers,  and,  unless  the  will 
of  the  Bishop  intercept  the  process,  is  to  be  overset  if  it 
he  inconsistent  with  the  judicial,  that  is  the  literal,  mean- 
ing of  the  words  of  a  statute  passed  in  1661.  Further,  it  is 
now  the  presumable  duty,  imposed  by  law  upon  the  Clergy, 
of  themselves  to  alter  their  practice,  even  against  their 
own  inclinations  and  those  of  the  congregation,  where  it 
is  not  in  conformity  with  the  exact  prescriptions  of  that 
statute  in  any  one  of  the  myriad  details  which  it  comprises. 
31.  It  is  true  that,  where  a  trial  is  demanded,  the 
Bishop  may  stop  it.  AVe  do  not  doiibt  that  this 
power,  without  which  the  Act  would  have  been  even  far 
worse  than  it  is,  will  be  rationally  and  prudently  exer- 
cised by  nearly  all  the  Bishops.  But  the  difficulty  of  so 
using  it  will,  to  the  most  honest  and  enlightened  mind, 
be  very  great :  in  one  or  two  instances,  which  it  would 
be  invidious  to  name,  we  can  hardly  hope  that  it  will  be 
considerately  employed ;  and  if  but  one  Bishop  out  of 
twenty-eight  or  thirty  be  suitable  to  their  purpose,  the 
wire-pullers  at  the  centre  will  put  up  in  that  diocese 
their  three  puppet-parishioners,  and  seek  so  to  rule  the 
whole  country.  The  whole  spirit  and  tendency  of  the 
Act  go  to  narrow  discretion  ;  to  curtail  freedom  enjoyed 
for  generations  with  satisfaction  to  all ;  and  to  tighten 
practice  according  to  a  rule  adopted  more  than  two  cen- 
turies ago,  and  to  such  intei-pretations  of  that  rule  as  may 
bo  pronounced  by  judges,  nearly  the  whole  of  whom  are 
not  only  ignorant  of  ecclesiastical  history  and  law,  but 
apparently  as  unaware  as  babes  tliat  such  ignorance  is 
either  a  disqualification,  or  even  a  disadvantage,  I'or  the 
exercise  of  their  office.     But  this  tendency  and  spirit  of 


IIFE   O?   TnE   PItlNCE    CONSOET.  91 

the  Act  is  aiul  has  Leon  felt  to  be  so  intolerable,  that  it 
has  been  (iixaliticd  by  the  iuti'rpolation  of  an  arbitrary- 
power,  which  may  extin^niish  the  Act  in  Diocese  A,  give 
it  absolute  and  unrestricted  sway  in  Diocese  B,  and  a 
mode  of  operation  adjusted  to  as  many  points  between 
these  extremes  in  Dioceses  from  C  to  Z. 

32.  Now  the  Prince's  plan  sets  out  upon  another  line  of 
movement.  Not  denying  the  authoi'ity  of  the  law,  nor 
impeding  its  ultimate  enforcement,  it  introduced  ct)llaterally 
into  our  system  a  new  sanction — namely,  a  sanction  for 
things  established  by  usage.  They  Avere  not  to  be  altered 
■without  consent  of  Laity  and  Clergy.  This  was  his  simple 
project  of  change.  "Where  that  consent  was  obtained, 
and  the  desii-e  for  a  change  established,  still  they  could 
only  be  altered  in  the  direction  of  conformity  with  the 
law,  which  remained  apj)lieable  in  all  its  rigour,  and 
withoiit  any  spurious  triad  of  parishioners  or  any  inter- 
vention of  an  arbitrary  veto,  to  unestablishcd  novelties. 
We  have  surely  here  a  very  notable  competition  between 
the  plans  of  the  Archbishops  and  of  the  Prince. 
"  Look  here  upon  tliis  picture — and  on  this." 

The  Prince  was  ever  regarded  with  some  jealousy  and 
apprehension  by  Churchmen  :  yet  some  of  them  may  be 
tempted  to  wish  not  only  that  his  most  valuable  life  had 
been  largely  prolonged,  but  that  he  had  been  Primate  of 
all  England  in  1874.  We  should  not  then  have  been 
trembling  at  this  time  in  fearful  anxiety  to  learn  whether 
a  great  and  historic  Church,  rich  in  work  and  blessing, 
rich  in  traditions,  and  richer  still  in  promise,  is  or  is  not 
to  be  the  victim  of  the  follies  committed  in  1874.* 


*  It  is  needful  to  correct  an  error  into  which  Mr.  Martin  has  fallen, 
not  unnaturally,  in  a  matter  lying  beside  the  main  scope  of  his  task. 


92  LIFE    OF   THE    PUINCE    CONSOET. 

33.  It  was  to  be  expected  that  one  wliose  life  was  so 
steadily  held  under  the  control  of  conscience  should  deeply 
feel  the  responsibilities  attending  the  education  of  the 
Eoyal  childi'en.  In  no  station  of  life  is  there  such  a  com- 
mand, or  such  a  fi^ee  application,  of  all  the  appliances  of 
instruction.  The  obstacles  which  it  places  in  the  way  of 
profound  and  solid  learning  are  indeed  insurmountable. 
Tliis  disability  is  perhaps  compensated  by  the  tendency  of 
the  station  itself  to  confer  a  large  amount  of  general  infor- 
mation, and  of  social  training.  Our  young  Princes  and 
Princesses  have  grown  up  under  a  sense  of  social  respon- 
sibility far  heavier  than  that  which  is  felt  by,  or  impressed 
upon,  children  born  and  reared  at  the  degree  of  elevation 
next  to  theirs.  In  a  religious  point  of  view,  however, 
their  dangers  are  immense  :  and  they  are  greatly  aggra- 
vated by  the  fact  that,  after  the  earliest  periods  of  life  are 
passed,  and  anything  like  manhood  is  attained,  they  do 
not  enjoy  the  benefit  of  that  invaluable  check  upon 
thought  and  conduct  which  is  afforded  by  the  free  com- 
munication and  mutual  correction  of  equals.     They  have 


He  says  in  p.  338  that  after  the  Papal  Brief  "  the  country  was  put 
upon  the  alert,  and  the  progress  of  proselytism  stayed."  Chronolo- 
gically, this  is  not  so.  It  was  shortly  after  the  Papal  Brief  that  the 
great  rush  of  secessions  took  place.  Then  it  was  tliat  Cardinal 
Alanning  carried  into  the  Roman  Church  those  peculiar  and  very 
remarkaide  powers  of  government  to  which  she  at  least  has  not 
refused  a  sphere.  Then  departed  from  us  Mr.  James  Hope  Scott,  Q.C. ; 
a  man  who  may,  with  little  exaggeration,  be  called  the  (lower  of  his 
generation.  With  and  after  them  went  a  host  of  others.  It  was 
eminently  the  time  of  secessions.  It  may  be  dillicult  to  say  whether 
the  Pa])al  Brief  seriously  acted  one  way  or  the  othei*.  For  it  was 
very  closely  followed  by  the  Judgment  in  the  Gorham  case,  and  this 
may  in  all  likelihood  have  been  the  principal  cause  of  a  blast  whii-h 
swept  away,  to  their  own  great  detriment  as  well  as  ours,  a  large  por- 
tion of  our  most  learned,  select,  and  devoted  clergy. 


LIFE    OF   THE    TKINCE    CONSOET.  93 

no  equals :  the  cases  in  whicli  a  friend  can  be  strong 
enough  and  bold  enough  to  tell  them  the  whole  truth 
about  tlieniselves  are  of  necessity  exceptional.  It  is 
much  if,  as  in  England,  tlie  air  of  Courts  is  not  tainted 
with  actual  falsehood.  The  free  circulation  of  truth  it 
hardly  can  permit :  and  the  central  personages  in  them 
are  hereby  deprived  in  a  great  degree  of  one  of  the  readiest 
and  most  effective  helps  for  their  salvation,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  they  are  set  up  as  a  mark  to  attract  all  the 
wiles  of  the  designing  and  the  vale. 

34.  It  is  well  known,  to  the  infinite  honour  of  Her 
Majesty  and  of  the  Prince,  how,  especially  in  the  con- 
spicuous instances  of  the  Dowager  Lady  Lyttelton  and  of 
the  excellent  Dean  of  Windsor,  the  best  provision  M'hich 
love  and  wisdom  could  suggest  was  made  for  the  religious 
training  of  the  Roj'al  offspring.  In  this  department,  as 
well  as  in  others,  the  Prince  looked  for  a  principle,  and  a 
defined  scope.  As  early  as  March  1842  (p.  175)  the  inevit- 
able Baron  had  supplied  a  Memorandum  on  the  subject. 
He  reverted  to  it  in  July  1846  (p.  183) ;  and  laid  it  down 
that  it  coiild  not  be  too  soon  determined  in  what  principles 
the  Prince  of  Wales  should  be  brought  up.  He  deprecated 
the  frame  of  mind  which  leads  to  indiscriminate  conserva- 
tism, desired  freedom  of  thought,  and  a  reflective  ap])re- 
ciaf  ion  of  practical  morality  as  indispensable  to  the  relation 
between  Sovereign  and  people.  And  then  he  proceeded  to 
the  question  of  religion.  The  law  required  that  "  the 
belief  of  the  Church  of  England  shall  be  the  faith  of  the 
members  of  the  lloyal  Family  "  (p.  185) :  and  this  law  must 
be  obeyed.  Eut  sliould  not  the  young  Prince's  mind  in  due 
time  be  opened  to  changes  in  progress,  and  to  the  probable 
effect  of  discoveries  in  science  ?  Society,  says  the  Baron, 
is  already  divided  into  two  classes.     The  first  is  composed 


94  LITE   OF   THE   PRINCE   CONSORT. 

of  those  who  hope  for  improvement  from  increased  know- 
ledge of  nature,  and  attention  to  the  laws  of  our  being ; 
which  will  work  out  the  results  intended  by  the  Creator. 
Of  the  hicrophants  of  this  class  the  Baron,  while  he 
favours  them,  has  not  hesitated  to  write  thus  :  "a  con- 
stant war  is  carried  on  openly,  but  more  generally  from 
masked  batteries,  by  this  class  of  persons,  on  the  pi'evail- 
ing  religious  opinions  "  (p.  186).  "  The  class  contains  the 
seeds  of  important  modifications  in  the  opinions  and 
religious  institutions  of  the  British  Empire." 

35.  Then  we  have  the  second  class,  whom  the  Baron 
succinctly  describes  as  "  the  advocates  of  sup  'rnatural  reli- 
gion." This  is  frank  enough  :  and  no  attempt  is  made 
to  disguise  the  fact  that  the  issue  raised  was  between 
Christianity  and  Theism.  The  account  given  of  this  class 
is  given  ab  extra,  and  not  as  in  the  other  case  from  within 
the  precinct.  It  is,  accordingly,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  fundamentally  inaccurate  and  misleading.  "  The 
orthodox  believers  regard  the  supernatural  poitions  of 
Christianity  as  the  basis  which  sustains  its  morality,  and 
as  the  sole  foundations  of  government,  law,  and  subordi- 
nation." Of  misrepresentation  Baron  Stockmar  was  in- 
capable ;  but  we  have  here  a  strange  amount  of  ignorance. 
lie  might  as  well  have  said  that  supernaturalists  were 
men  who  did  not  cat  or  diink,  and  ^vho  held  that  corporal 
life  was  only  to  be  sustained  by  Divine  gi-ace,  which  was 
tlie  sole  foundation  of  running  and  jumping.  A  man  who 
lives  in  the  second  story  of  a  house  rests  only,  it  seems, 
upon  the  air,  and  not  upon  the  first  story  and  the  base- 
ment. But,  in  truth,  the  Christian  morality  enjoys  all 
the  supports  which  belong  to  the  morality  of  Stockmar, 
while  it  is  lifted  by  the  Incarnation  to  a  higher  level,  with 
a  larger  view,  and  a  place  nearer  to  God.     We  could  not 


IIFE    OF   THE    I'EINCE    COXSORT.  95 

expect  him  to  have  wasted  his  time  in  reading  the  -n'orks 
of  theologians,  which,  however,  he  thought  himself  quali- 
fied to  describe.  Yet  he  ought  surely  to  have  lvno\\n  that 
8t.  Paul  expressly  deduces  the  binding  character  of  reli- 
gion (Rom.  i.  19,  20)  from  the  book  of  ]S"ature,  and  also 
regards  offences  against  Nature  as  a  distinct  and  deeper 
category  of  sin  (Jhul.  26,  27).  Xor  would  it  have  been 
unworthy  of  him  to  bear  in  mind  that  Dante  has  placed 
the  violent  against  Nature  in  a  deeper  condemnation  even 
than  those  M'ho  are  violent  against  God  ('  Inferno,'  Canto 
XIV.  and  XV.).  The  Baron  must  have  been  a  good  deal 
puzzled  to  reconcile  his  own  unequivocal  condemnation  of 
supernatural  religion  Avith  his  frank  recognition  of  a  legal 
necessity  for  training  in  the  Anglican  system  of  belief. 
Upon  the  whole  we  must  say,  even  with  the  gratitude 
every  Englisliman  should  feel  towards  this  faithful  friend 
and  adviser  of  his  Sovereign,  the  Memorandum,  as  it  is 
presented  by  Mr.  Martin,  has  too  much  the  appearance  of 
one  of  the  "masked  batteries  "  which  it  describes.  Eut 
parental  wisdom  was  not  to  be  seduced  even  by  this  great 
uuthonty,  and  the  arrangements  for  the  education  of  the 
Prince  of  AVales  were  made,  we  believe,  in  the  old  Chris- 
tian fashion. 

36.  It  is  not,  however,  as  a  model  cither  of  theological 
or  of  political  opinion  that  any  human  being  can  profitably 
be  proposed  for  exact  imitation,  or  that  we  think  the 
Prince  will  be  longest  and  best  remembered  among  us. 
In  the  speculative  man  there  remained  much  more  of  the 
German  than  in  the  practical.  His  contemplation  and 
study  of  the  living  and  working  England  were  alike 
assiduous  and  fruitful ;  and  this  man,  who  never  sat 
upon  our  Throne,  and  who  ceased  at  the  early  age  of 
forty-two  to  stand  beside  it,  did  more  than  any  of  our 


96  LIFE    OF   THE    TEINCE    CONSORT. 

Sovereigns,  except  very,  very  few,  to  brighten  its  lustre 
and  to  strengthen  its  foundations.  He  did  this,  by  the 
exhibition  in  the  highest  place,  jointly  with  the  Queen, 
of  a  noble  and  lofty  life,  which  refused  to  take  self  for 
the  centre  of  its  action,  and  sought  its  pleasure  in  the 
unceasing  performance  of  duty.  There  has  been,  beyond 
all  doubt,  one  perceptible  and  painful  change  since  his 
death  :  a  depression  of  the  standard  of  conduct  within 
the  very  highest  circle  of  society.  In  proof  of  this 
melancholy  proposition,  we  will  specify  that  branch  of 
morality  which  may  fairly  be  taken  as  a  testing-branch 
— namely,  conjugal  morality.  Among  the  causes  of  an 
incipient  change  so  disastrous  to  our  future  prospects, 
we  should  be  inclined  to  reckon  the  death  of  the  Prince 
Consort,  and  the  disappearance  from  public  view  of  that 
majestic  and  imposing,  as  well  as  attractive  and  instruc- 
tive, picture  of  a  Court  which,  while  he  lived,  was  always 
before  the  eyes  of  the  aristocracy  and  the  nation. 

37.  Neither  this  book,  nor  any  book  written  from  a  pecu- 
liar point  of  view,  can  ever  supply  a  standard  history  of 
the  period  it  embraces.  It  may,  nevertheless,  supply — 
and  we  think  it  has  thus  far  supplied — a  valuable  contri- 
bution to,  and  an  indispensable  part  of,  such  a  history. 
This  alone  more  than  justifies  the  publication.  But  it 
has  a  yet  higher  title  in  its  faithful  care  and  solid  merit 
as  a  biography.  From  the  midst  of  the  hottest  glow  of 
worldly  splendour  it  has  drawn  forth  to  public  contempla- 
tion a  genuine  piece  of  solid,  sterling,  and  unworldly 
excellence  ;  a,  pure  and  lofty  life,  from  which  every  man, 
and  most  of  all  every  Christian,  may  learn  many  au 
ennobling  lesson ;  and  on  which  he  may  do  well  to 
meditate,  when  he  communes  with  his  own  heart,  in  liia 
chamber,  and  is  still. 


IV. 

LIFE  or  THE  PRINCE  CONSOET. 

Vol.  III.     London,  1877.* 

1.  The  labours  of  Mr.  ^Martin  on  the  life  of  the  Prince 
Consort  have  been  marked  by  a  conscientious  dilij^ence 
not  less  noteworthy  than  his  talent  and  his  equitable 
temper.  With  these  qualifications,  and  with  the  free 
access  to  the  innermost  centres  of  confidential  information, 
which  has  been  so  graciously  accorded  to  him  by  the 
Sovereign,  he  has  in  his  two  former  Volumes  presented 
to  us  a  personal  portraiture  of  the  Piince  Consort  so 
complete  that  it  scarcely  allows  the  addition  of  a  touch. 
The  biographer,  as  he  proceeds  along  the  course  of  the 
revolving  years,  can  indeed  lengthen  the  ample  catalogue 
of  actions  wise  and  good ;  and  can  show  how  time,  as  it 
gives  new  force,  depth,  and  dignity  to  the  human  coun- 
tenance, even  into  a  prolonged  old  age,  so  also  imparts  a 
riper  mellowness,  and  a  more  compact  solidity,  to  mental 
faculty  and  work. 

2.  Monumental  commemoration,  which  reminds  man  of 
his  weakness  even  more  than  of  his  strength,  and  which 
has  been  carried  farther  pcrbaps  in  tlie  case  of  the  Prince 
Consort  than  of  any  other  distinguished  personage,  has 
something  in  it  that  jars,  when  it  goes  beyond  the  modesty 
of  custom.     Yet  every  statue  and  memorial  of  the  Prince 


*  Published  in  the  Church  of  Emjland  Quarterly  Review  for  Januar* 
1878. 

I.  H 


98  LIFE    OF    TTIV.    rP.TNHE    CONSnUT. 

may  in  some  sense  be  considered  as  a  sermon  made  visil)le. 
He  is  one  of  the  few,  the  very  few,  characters  on  the 
active  stage  of  modern  life,  in  whom  the  idea  of  duty 
seems  to  be  actually  impersonated,  and  to  walk  abroad  in 
the  costumes  of  State.  It  is  good  for  us  to  be  taken 
back,  again  and  again,  to  see  the  spectacle,  and  so  to 
learn  its  lessons.  After  making  every  allowance  for  a 
work  composed  almost  within  the  precinct  of  a  Court,  and 
without  pretending  to  determine  the  precise  place  which 
history  will  finally  accord  to  him  upon  the  roll  of  great- 
ness, we  are  safe  in  saying  that  upon  the  extended  surface 
of  society  we  may  travel  far  and  wide,  before  the  eye  is 
blessed  with  so  strong  and  happy  a  combination  of  mental 
and  of  moral  force.  K^or  can  it  be  questioned  that  siich 
combination  is  more  precious  to  mankind  in  exact  propor- 
tion as  its  seat  is  found,  and  its  activity  developed,  near 
to  the  summit  of  the  social  fabric.  Born  with  all  these 
faculties  to  a  high  station,  and  lifted  up  by  marriage  to 
one  of  unusual  splendour,  it  was  his  fate,  being  torn  away 
in  the  very  flower  of  his  manhood  and  the  vigour  of  all 
his  gifts,  to  add  to  the  lustre  of  his  career  that  peculiar 
touch  of  pathos  given  by  the  master  artist  of  heroic 
character  to  his  Achilles ;  to  whom  the  consummation 
of  his  glory  was  only  permitted  on  condition  of  the 
shortening  of  his  life*  In  the  attentive  reader  of  this 
Volume  will  probably  deepen  the  impression  he  may  have 
received  from  those  which  preceded  it,  that  few  indeed 
have  been  the  lives,  in  this  curiously  chequered  age  of 
ours,  which  upon  the  whole  come  nearer  to  the  standard 
which  in  genei-al  we  contemplate  rather  than  attain. 
3.  This  repeated  presentation  to  the  public  eye  of  such 


Iliad,  B.  ix.  410-0. 


LIFE    OF   THE   PEINCE    COXSOET.  99 

a  picture,  "vvith  all  its  elevating  and  all  its  caliiiiiig 
iiiliueiicc's,  is  indeed  so  wholesome  that  we  feel  anything 
rather  than  displeased  with  Mr.  Martin  when  he  informs 
us,  in  his  Preface,  that  the  work  has  in  spite  of  him 
outgrown  the  limits  which  he  had  appointed  for  it,  and 
that  it  must  extend  through  a  fourth  of  these  large  and 
portly  Volumes.  The  consequence,  however,  is,  that  it 
assumes,  as  we  proceed,  the  character  less  of  a  biography, 
and  more  of  a  history.  It  may  also  be  stated  with  f^ome 
confidence  that  for  a  final  history  of  the  times,  and  of  the 
great  events  it  touches,  it  is  both  too  near  and  too  brief. 
Mr.  Martin  has  evidently  been  guided  in  his  course  by  the 
consideration  that  the  history  of  the  period  he  has  here  to 
traverse  was  really  a  part  of  the  Prince's  life ;  so  opera- 
tive was  the  force  that  he  had  exerted  in  the  making  of 
it.  Of  this  the  Prince  himself,  for  once,  allows  himself 
to  speak  in  significant  terms  : — 

"Tho  things  of  all  sorts  that  are  laid  on  onr  shon'dcrs,  i.e.  on 
mine,  are  not  to  be  told.  People  ft  el  th  it  a  certain  powtr  exists, 
which  has  not  thrust  itself  ostentatiuubly  forward,  and  tlicrefuio 
they  fancy  it  must  ho  doing  harm,  even  althuugh  the  results  of 
what  it  does  must  all  be  admitted  to  be  good." — P.  457. 

4.  There  arc,  indeed,  those  who  surmise  that  this  ex- 
tension of  Mr.  Martin's  plan  has  been  effected  in  order  to 
carry  back  the  public  mind  in  large  detail  to  the  associations 
of  the  Crimean  War,  and  thus  to  revive  the  sentiments  of 
hostility  to  Russia  which  at  that  epoch  naturally  and 
warrantably  prevailed.  But,  even  apart  from  the  remem- 
brance of  the  high  auspices  under  which  he  writes,  we 
know  of  nothing  to  justify  the  imputation  to  him  of  a 
mischievous  and  paltry  trick.  Tlie  imputation  itself  is 
probably  due  to  the  exultation  with  which  the  portion  of 

H  2 


100  LIFE  OF  THE  PRINCE  CONSOKT. 

our  newspaper  press  that  is  hostile  to  the  suhject  races  in 
Turkey  has  gloated  on  his  reference  to  the  cruelty  with 
which,  in  some  instances,  our  wounded  were  treated  by 
the  Russian  soldiers  as  they  lay  on  the  battle-field.  This 
is  an  excess  to  be  severely  reprobated.  Prince  Menschikoll 
alleged,  in  justification,  that  English  prisoners  had  made 
use  of  concealed  revolvers  (p.  159)  to  shoot  down  their 
captors ;  but  this  must  have  been  rare,  for  he  finds  it 
necessary  to  put  in  other  excuses  also,  which  are  frivolous. 
Attempts  have,  however,  been  made  to  treat  this  pro- 
ceeding as  parallel  to  the  wicked,  and  indeed  fiendish, 
proceedings  of  the  Turks  in  mutilation  and  cruel  torture 
on  the  fields  of  recent  battle.  To  compare  the  two  is 
truly  minima  componere  magnis.  To  give  no  quarter,  and 
to  put  an  end  to  the  life  of  the  wounded,  is  one  thing ;  to 
mutilate,  to  torture,  and  to  burn  them  is  another;  and 
these  are  the  practices,  too  well  attested,  of  the  last  few 
months.*  Mr.  Martin  for  a  moment  happens  to  deviate 
from  his  usual  impartiality,  when  he  seems  (p.  IGO)  to 
match  the  simple  privation  of  life  with  this  more  than 
bestial  delight  in  torture.  We  do  not  know  if  it  has  ever 
been  stated  to  him,  as  it  has  been  to  us,  on  the  authority 
of  Lord  Gough,  that  there  were  too  many  acts  of  this 
description  committed  by  the  British  soldiers,  in  the  war 
of  the  Punjaub,  on  their  wounded  and  disabled  enemies. 

5.  There  is  a  supposition,  much  more  rational  as  well  as 
mueh  more  charitable,  which  may  tend  to  account  for  Mr. 
Martin's  having  altered  and  enlarged  his  plan  at  this  par- 
ticular juncture.  For  this  alteration  has  enabled  not  only 
to  show  the  part  which  the  Prince  took  in  all  the  anxieties 


*  See,  e.i].,  the  article  of  Mr.  Forbes,  in  The  Nineteenth  Century  for 
November,  p.  571. 


LIFE    OF   THE    rillNCE   CONSORT.  101 

of  the  Crimean  War,  but  to  give  us  the  Prince's  evidence 
in  his  own  detailed  and  repeated  hinguage  as  to  the  policy 
in  furtherance  of  Avhich  it  was  undertaken.  So  much  has 
been  recently  stated,  or  mis-stated,  in  regard  to  the  aim 
and  motive  of  that  war,  that  nothing  can  he  more  season- 
al)le  than  the  opportunity  he  offers  us  of  learning  some- 
thing on  the  suhjcct  from  high  and  dispassionate  authority. 
For  the  authority  is,  in  truth,  very  high.  We  are  to 
regard  the  Prince  Consort  as  having  been  while  he  lived 
the  mind's  eye,  so  to  speak,  of  a  Sovereign  who  entered 
with  energy  into  all  great  transactions.  There  was  such 
a  standing  partnership,  and  common  movement  of  the  two, 
combined  with  such  a  harmony  of  character  and  feeling, 
that  we  may  regard  the  will  of  either  one  as  speaking  for 
both  ;  and,  jointly,  they  had  unrivalled  means  from  day  to 
day  for  estimating  what  the  French  call  the  "  situation." 
From  near  presence,  and  close  and  constant  intercourse, 
reaching  far  beyond  established  forms,  they  knew  not  only 
the  resolutions  of  the  Aberdeen  Cabinet,  but  the  interior 
mind  of  all  those  members  of  it  who  had  special  titles  to 
exercise  an  influence  on  its  foreign  policy.  Of  these  the 
most  important  were  Lord  Aberdeen  as  Prime  Minister, 
and  Lord  Clarendon  as  Foreign  Secretary.  Next  to  them 
came  Lord  Palmerston,  on  account  of  his  great  knowledge 
and  experience  in  foreign  affairs  ;  and  with  him  Lord  John 
Bussell,  as  the  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  as 
the  person  who  had  taken  the  seals  of  the  Foreign  Office 
on  the  formation  of  that  Ministry,  and  who  resigned  them 
shoa-tly  afterwards  to  Lord  Clarendon,  without  doubt  for 
the  very  sufficient  reason  that  no  man  can  efficiently  dis- 
charge in  conjunction,  especially  at  a  time  of  crisis,  the 
duties  of  the  Foreign  Department  and  those  attaching  to 
the  Leadership  of  the  Commons. 


102  LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE   CONSOET. 

6.  It  is  a  favourite  idea  with  some,  that  we  have  hail 
handed  down  from  a  remote  date  a  traditional  policy  of 
upholding-  the  Ottoman  Empire,  like  Portugal  or  Belgium, 
without  much  regard  to  collateral  questions.  We  helieve 
it  would  he  difficult  to  establish  this  doctrine  by  historical 
evidence.  To  those  who  care  to  examine  the  question 
ever  so  little,  we  recommend  an  examination  of  the  speech 
of  Lord  Holland  in  the  debate  of  January  29,  1828.  It 
was  delivered  at  a  time  when  we  were  engaged  in  a  policy 
of  coercion  against  Turkey,  out  of  which,  just  before,  had 
grown  the  battle  of  Kavarino.  Lord  Holland  appeared  to 
show  in  that  debate  that  we  had  indeed  ancient  alliances 
with  Russia,  that  we  had  no  treaty  at  all  with  Turkey 
before  1799,  that  the  treaty  then  concluded  was  only  for 
seven  years,  that  it  was  simply  part  and  parcel  of  our  mili- 
tary measures  against  France.  And  it  commenced  with 
these  words:  "His  Britannic  Majesty,  connected  already 
with  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  llussia  by  the  ties  of  the 
strictest  alliance,  accedes  by  the  present  treaty  to  the 
defensive  alliance  which  lias  just  been  concluded  between 
His  Majesty  the  Ottoman  Emperor  and  the  Emperor  of 
Russia; "  together  with  certain  limiting  words,  which 
need  not  be  cited  in  this  place. 

7.  It  would  be  curious  to  ascertain  the  precise  date  at 
which  the  idea  was  first  broached,  tliat  British  interests 
required  the  maintenance  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  "We 
have  little  doubt  that  it  is  posterior  to  the  debate  whicli 
has  just  been  cited,  and  that  it  was  far  from  being  gene- 
rally recognised  by  the  statesmen  of  the  last  generation. 
It  may  pro])ably  be  traced  in  the  policy  of  1840,  and  the 
armed  assistance  lent  to  the  decrepit  Empire  against  its 
Egyptian  vassal.  It  grew,  however,  with  ra])idity,  fos- 
tered by  the  rather  womanish  suspicions  and  alarms  on 


LIFE    OF   THE   PIIINCE    COXSORT.  103 

behalf  of  India,  of  which  Russia  gradually  became  tlie 
object.  It  has  grown  with  greater  rapidity  since  tlie 
Crimean  AYar,  in  proportion  to  the  increased  susceptibility 
of  the  country,  which  has  almost  learned  to  regard  political 
alarm  as  standing  in  the  first  class  of  its  luxuries,  those 
namely  which  are  daily  and  indispensable. 

8.  It  may  boldly  be  affirmed  that  this  doctrine  of  British 
interests,  as  involving  a  necessity  of  upholding  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  was  not  the  avowed  doctrine  of  the  Ibitish 
Government  in  the  proceedings  immediately  anterior  to 
the  Crimean  War.  Some  there  are  at  the  present  day 
who  believe  that  war  to  have  been  a  war  for  liritisli  in- 
terests, founded  upon  the  traditional  policy  of  maintaining 
the  Porte,  with  all  its  crimes,  in  its  "  integrity  and  inde- 
pendence," as  the  proper  bulwark  of  our  own  sway  in 
India.  Others  have  thought  that  we  undertook  the  war 
upon  a  ground  certainly  more  chivalrous ;  that,  seeing  a 
weaker  country  oppressed  by  a  stronger  one,  we  generously 
interfered  on  behalf  of  the  weak  against  the  strong.  Of 
course,  such  a  theory  provokes  the  question,  how  far  it  is 
to  reach  ;  and  whether  we,  of  all  mankind,  liave  taken  out 
a  general  roving  commission  of  knight  errantry — 

"  To  ride  abroad  redressing  human  wrongs."* 

9.  The  work  of  Mr.  Martin  supplies  weighty  e\'idence 
that  the  policy  of  the  Ci'imean  War  was  based  neither 
upon  the  cynical  selfishness  of  the  first  of  these  concep- 
tions nor  upon  the  high-flown  Quixotry  of  the  last.  Un- 
less the  Sovereign  :nid  her  Consort,  with  their  matchless 
opportunities  of  knowledge,  were  absolutely  blindfolded, 
the  policy  which  led  us  into  the  war  was  that  of  repressing 


*  Tcnnvson's  '  Guinevere.' 


104  LIFE   OF   THE    riUNCE    COXSOET. 

an  offence  against  the  public  law  of  Europe,  but  only  by 
the  united  authority  of  the  Powers  of  Europe.  Public 
la.v  aud  European  concert  were  in  truth  its  twin  watch- 
words. From  the  pages  before  us  we  will  now  supply 
the  pooof. 

"  Our  conduct  throughout,''  says  the  Queen,  wiitini,'  to  Lord 
Aberdeen,  on  April  1,  1854  (p.  59),  "  has  been  actuated  by 
unselfishness  and  honesty." 

This  was  at  the  commencement.  At  the  close,  on 
March  31,  1856,  the  Queen  writes  (p.  471)  that  to  Lord 
Clarendon  alone  (i.e.,  alone  of  those  in  Paris)  "  is  due  the 
dignified  position  the  Queen's  beloved  country  holds, 
thanks  to  a  straightforward,  steady,  and  unselfish  policy 
throughout." 

10.  So  much  for  the  British  interests.  On  June  21,  the 
Prince  Consort  delivers  a  speech  at  the  Trinity  House,  in 
which  (p.  69)  he  says  : — 

"  All  these  difficulties,  however,  may  be  considered  to  be  com- 
pensated by  tlie  goodness  of  our  cause,  'the  vindication  of  the 
public  law  of  Europe.' '' 

And  also,  he  proceeds  to  say,  by  the  French  alliance. 
On  July  5,  he  writes  to  the  Emperor  Napoleon  (p.  88)  : — 

"  II  mo  sera  en  outre  du  plus  haut  int^ret  d'assister  a  une  con- 
centraliiin  dc  troupes  de  cette  noble  arnie'e,  rangei;  dans  ce  moment 
a  cote'  de  la  notre,  pour  la  de'fense  du  dioit  public  europeen." 

On  November  19  he  writes  to  Lord  Clarendon  (p.  164) 
that  the  aim  of  the  war  was 

"  to  put  a  term  at  last  to  a  policy  which  threatened  the  existence 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and,  by  making  all  the  countries  bordering 
on  the  Blark  Sen,  (le[)end(^neies  of  llussia,  serioii.^ly  to  endang(3r  the 
bid.noc  of  j)o\ver." 


LIFE    OF   THE    rrJXCE    COXSOUT.  105 

To  the  King  of  the  Belgians,  on  February  16,  1855,  the 
Prince  writes,  comphTining  of  the  charges  marie  against 
us  (p.  447) ;  and,  among  others,  of  this — that  we  were 
"  making  a  tool  of  France  for  our  own  objects  in  the  East 
(because  of  India,  &c.)  "  : — 

"  The  truth  of  the  matter,  on  the  contrary,  ia,  that  a  great  Euro- 
poan  question  was  at  issue,  and  France  and  ourselves  were,  and  still 
are.  the  only  Powers  possessed  of  the  tirmness,  the  courage,  A^o  the 

DISINTEUKSTEDNESS  tO  grapplo  witll  it." 

That  other  and  lower  views  gradually  fotmd  acceptance 
in  lower  quarters,  we  do  not  doubt.  13ut  these  were  the 
views  embraced  at  the  Court,  guided  as  it  was  by  rare 
integrity,  unsurpassed  intelligence,  and  ample  connaissance 
de  cause. 

11.  And  the  language  we  have  cited  is  in  full  harmony 
with  the  general  strain  of  the  correspondence  laid  before 
Parliament.  At  the  outset,  the  quarrel  was  one  between 
Russia  and  France  in  regard  to  ecclesiastical  privileges  at 
the  Holy  Places.  England  was  but  an  amicus  curi(e ; 
and,  in  that  capacity,  she  thought  liussia  in  the  right. 
As,  however,  the  communications  went  on,  the  Czar, 
unfortunately,  committed  his  case'  to  a  special  envoy, 
Prince  ^McnschikofF,  whose  demands  upon  the  Porto 
appeared  to  the  liritish  Government  to  render  hai'mony 
in  the  Turkish  Empire,  if  they  should  be  accepted, 
thenceforth  impossible.  In  the  further  stages  of  the 
correspondence,  which  had  thus  shifted  its  ground,  wo 
found  ourselves  in  comr>nny  with  France ;  and  not  with 
France  only,  but  with  Em  ope.  At  one  particular  point, 
it  must  in  faiiTiess  be  allowed  that  Russia,  with  her 
single  rapier,  had  all  her  antagonists  at  a  disadvantage. 
They  had  collectively  accepted,  and  they  proposed  to  her 


106  IIPE    OF   THE    PEINCE    CONSORT. 

a  Note,  known  as  the  Yienna  Note,  which  she  also  ac- 
cepted ;  and  they  afterwards  receded  from  it,  upon 
objection  taken  to  it  by  Turkey.  Russia,  however, 
covered  the  miscarriage  of  her  opponents  by  sustaining 
the  Turkish  interpretation  of  the  words,  and  thus  sheltered 
their  retreat  from  the  support  of  the  document  they 
themselves  had  framed.  But  it  was  not  upon  this  mis- 
carriage that  the  dispute  came  to  a  final  issue.  The 
broken  threads  of  negotiation  were  pieced  together ;  and, 
about  the  time  when  the  year  expired,  a  new  instrument, 
of  a  moderate  and  conciliatory  character,  was  framed  at 
Constantinople,  and  approved  by  the  Cabinets  of  the  five 
Powers,  still  in  unbroken  union.  It  was  the  rejection  of 
this  plan  by  the  Emperor  Nicholas,  when  it  was  presented 
to  him  in  January  1854,  and  not  his  refusal  of  the 
Turkish  amendments  to  the  Vienna  Note,  that  brought 
about  the  war  in  the  following  March. 

12.  Thus  far  the  Prince  and  the  Queen  have  enabled  us 
to  vindicate  the  British  policy  against  the  accusation  of 
selfishness.  Let  us  now  see  how  it  stands  on  the  other 
side,  as  against  the  charge  of  Quixotry.  If  it  is  wholly 
unwise  and  unwarrantable  for  one  Power  to  constitute 
itself  the  judge  and  the  avenger  of  European  law,  is 
it  wholly  wise  and  reasonable  for  two  ?  So  far  as  a 
question  of  this  kind  can  be  answered  in  the  abstract, 
undoubtedly  it  is  not.  It  is  a  precedent  by  no  means  free 
from  danger ;  a  couple  of  States  cannot  claim  for  them- 
selves European  authority.  But  this  was  not  the  enter- 
prise on  which  Erance  and  England  advisedly  set  out. 
They  began  their  work,  say  from  the  time  of  the  Men- 
schikoff  mission,  in  close  association  with  Austria  and  with 
Prussia;  and  the  four  together  were  the  only  Powers 
who,  by  established  usage,  could  represent  the  concert  of 


IIFE    OF   THE    PKIXCE    CONSORT.  107 

Europe,  in  a  case  where  the  fifth,  an  only  remaining 
Power  of  tlie  first  order,  was  itself  the  panel  in  the  dock. 
They  pursned  tliis  work  in  hai'niony  through  the  whole 
of  the  year  1853.  "With  March  18.54  came  the  crisis. 
Austria  urged  the  two  leading  States,  England  and 
France,  to  send  in  their  ultimatum  to  lliissia,  and  pro- 
mised it  her  decided  support.  She  redeemed  the  pledge, 
but  only  to  the  extent  of  a  strong  verbal  advocacy. 
Without  following  out  the  subse(|ueut  detail  of  her 
proceedings,  she  rendered  thereafter  to  the  Allies  but 
equivocal  and  uncertain  service ;  without,  however,  dis- 
avowing their  policy  either  in  act  or  woj'd.  It  was 
Prussia,  which  at  the  critical  moment,  to  speak  in  homely 
language,  bolted ;  the  vcrj*  jjolicy  which  she  had  recom- 
mended, she  declined  unconditionally  to  sustain,  from  the 
first  moment  when  it  began  to  assume  the  character  of  a 
solid  and  stern  reality.  In  fact,  slie  broke  up  the  Euro- 
pean concert,  by  which  it  was  that  France  and  England 
had  hoped,  and  had  had  a  right  to  hope,  to  put  down  tlic 
stubbornness  of  the  Czar,  and  to  repel  his  attack  upon  the 
public  law  of  Eui'ope.  The  question  that  these  Allies  had 
now  to  deterTuine  was  whether,  armed  as  they  had  been 
all  ;dong  with  the  panoply  of  moral  authority,  they 
would,  upon  this  unfortunate  and  discreditable  desertion, 
allow  all  their  demands,  their  reasonings,  their  ])rofes- 
sions,  to  melt  into  thin  air.  They  were,  in  the  view  of 
public  right,  perhaps  entitled  to  decline  the  heavy  respon- 
sibility of  executing  alone  what  they  had  counselled  and 
designed  in  company  with  others.  At  least  there  could 
have  been  no  one  with  a  good  title  to  reproach  them. 
But  would  such  a  retreat,  such  a  Xiirora^ia,  by  two  such 
Powers,  have  been  for  the  permanent  advantages  of 
European  honour,  or  legality,  or  peace? 


i08  IIPE    OF   TnE    PErN"CE    CONSOE?. 

13.  We  shall  now  produce  evidence  of  the  same  class  aa 
before,  and  from  the  same  sources,  to  show  that  the  views 
we  have  thus  expressed  were  those  of  the  British  Court 
at  the  epoch  of  the  Crimean  War.  We  shall  show  how 
indisputably  it  was  there  and  then  believed  that  the 
continued  concert  of  Europe  would  abash  the  offender, 
and  settle  the  dispute  without  bloodshed;  how  the 
Powers,  and  especially  the  Power,  were  regarded,  which 
paralysed  that  concert,  and  broke  it  up. 

On  August  28,  1854  (p.  98),  the  Prince  writes  thus  to 
the  King  of  Prussia  : — 

"  The  four  Powers  acted  in  perfect  haniiony  up  to  last  March, 
when  Prussia  rejected  the  Quadruple  Treaty,  which  Austria,  with 
the  wisest  intentions,  had  proposed." 

On  November  8  (p.  143)  he  addresses  his  uncle,  King 
Leopold,  and  describes  the  danger  that  France  may  be 
tempted  "  to  cherish  her  traditional  arriere-pensees  of 
territorial  aggrandisement  "  : — 

"  This  danger,  I  repeat,  Austria,  Prussin,  and  Germany  ra^iy  avert, 
by  acting  with  us,  not  in  the  manipulntion  of  protocols,  wliich  leave 
everything  to  tlie  exertions  of  the  Western  Powers,  and  have  no 
object  but  to  make  sure  that  no  liarin  is  done  to  tlie  enemy.  Such  a 
course  is  dishonourable,  immoral,  leads  to  distrust,  and  ultimately  to 
direct  hostility.  Already  the  soreness  of  feeling  here  against  Prussia 
is  intense." 

And  as  to  Prance,  October  23,  1854  (p.  137) : 

"  In  Boulogne  tlie  army,  as  I  now  hear,  was  in  hopes  to  have  to 
fight  next  year  with  Prussia." 

Much  later,  on  October  29,  1855  (p.  385),  the  Prince 
writes  to  Baron  Stockmar  :  — 

"The  position  talccn  up  by  Austria  and  Prussia  is  alone  to  blame 
for  all ;  and  I  tremble  for  the  Nemesis!" 


LIFE    OF    THE    rillNCE    CONSOKT.  109 

14.  Mr.  Martin  himself,  describing  this  condition  of 
sentiment,  says  (p.  161)  : — 

"As  the  trngic  events  of  this  terrible  war  were  more  and  more 
devcluj)e(i,  more  and  more  koeuly  was  it  felt  that  all  its  miseries 
and  carnaii;e  might  have  been  prevented,  had  the  German  Powi  r.s 
gone  heart  and  hand  with  those  of  the  West  in  telling  liussia  that 
if  she  persisted  in  her  aggression  on  Turkey,  she  would  have  to  mui  t 
them  also  in  the  field." 

When,  however,  the  fight  had  been  fought,  and  tlie 
allied  Powers  were  about  to  obtaiil  the  fruits  of  it  in  a 
Treaty  of  Peace,  then  Prussia  made  her  claim,  as  one  of 
the  great  Powers,  to  take  part  in  the  negotiations.  With 
respect  to  this  claim,  the  Prince  shows,  on  February  16, 
1855  (p.  449),  that  it  is  inadmissible.  Powers  must  not, 
he  says,  take  part  in  the  great  game  of  politics,  without 
having  laid  down  their  stake  : — 


^& 


"  Besides  the  question  here  is  between  Powers  who  have  waged 
war  against  eaeh  otlier,  and  wish  to  conclude  a  peace.  What  riglit, 
then,  have  others  to  interfere  who  have  taken  no  part  in  the  con- 
flict, and  have  constantly  maintained  that  their  interests  are  not 
touched  by  tlie  matter  in  dispute,  and  that,  therefore,  they  would. 
not  take  any  part  in  tlie  business  V" 

Prussia  was  accordingly  excluded  from  the  arrange- 
ments between  the  belligerents  ;  and  only  afterwards  was 
allowed  to  appear  at  the  meetings  of  the  Powers  for  the 
purpose  of  considering  the  general  and  European  arrange- 
ments embodied  in  the  Treaty  of  1856. 

The  restrained,  and  sometimes  mysterious,  conduct  of 
Austria  is  repeatedly  censured;  but  her  case  was  entirely 
distinct.  Her  occupation  of  the  Principalities  had  at 
least  the  air  of  a  qualified  co-operation  ;  her  menace  of  an 
entire  junction   with  liie  Allies  (p.  425)  hud  to  do  with 


110  LIFE    OF   THE    PEFNCE    CONSOUT. 

tlie  final  succumbing  of  Uussia :  and  her  moral  weight 
was  with  them  thi'oi;ghout. 

15.  There  are  those  who  will  di^aw  comparisons,  mutatis 
nominihis,  between  the  drama  of  1853-6  and  that  of 
1875-8.  There  was  in  each  case  an  offender  against  the 
law  and  peace  of  Europe  ;  Turkey,  by  her  distinct  and 
obstinate  breach  of  covenant,  taking  on  the  later  occasion 
the  place  which  Russia  had  held  in  the  earlier  controversy. 
There  were  in  each  case  prolonged  attempts  to  put  dowu 
the  offence  by  means  of  European  concert.  In  1853-4, 
these  proceeded  without  a  check  until  the  eve  of  the  war. 
In  1875-7,  the  combination  was  sadly  intermittent;  but, 
in  the  singular  and  unprecedented  Conference  at  Con- 
stantinople, it  was,  at  least,  on  the  part  of  the  assembled 
representatives,  perfectly  unequivocal.  In  1854,  the  re- 
fusal of  Prussia  to  support  words  by  acts  completely 
altered  the  situation;  and  in  187G-7,  the  assurance  con- 
veyed to  Turkey  from  England,  that  only  moral  suasion 
was  intended,  had  the  same  effect.  The  difference  was 
that,  in  1854-5,  two  great  Powers,  with  the  partial 
support  of  a  third,  prosecuted  by  military  means  the  work 
they  had  undertaken ;  in  1877  it  was  left  to  Russia  alone 
to  act  as  the  hand  and  sword  of  Europe,  with  the  natural 
consequence  of  weighting  the  scale  with  the  question 
what  compensation  she  might  claim,  or  would  claim,  for 
her  efforts  and  her  sacrifices.  This  outline  of  a  parallel 
we  may  leave  to  the  impartial  criticism  of  our  readers. 

16.  Thus  far  we  have  seen  that  the  design  of  the  Crimean 
War  was,  in  its  groundwork,  tlie  vindication  of  Europem 
law  against  an  unprovoked  aggression.  It  sought,  thercifore, 
to  maintain  intactthe  condition  of  the  menaced  party  against 
the  aggressor  ;  or  in  other  Avords,  to  defend  against  Russia 
the  integrity  and  independence  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 


LIFE    OF    TTIi:    PRINCE    COXSOKT.  1  1  1 

The  condition  of  the  Chrisliuu  subjects  of  the  roilc  in 
general  was  a  subject  that  had  never  before  that  e])0(h 
come  under  the  official  consideration  of  Europe.  The 
internal  government  ef  a  country,  it  may  safely  be  laid 
down,  cannot  well  become  the  subject  of  effective  con- 
sideration by  other  States,  except  in  cases  where  it  leads 
to  consequences  in  which  they  have  a  true  locus  standi,  a 
legitimate  concern  on  their  own  particular  account,  or  on 
account  of  the  general  peace.  In  the  case  of  Greece, 
an  insurrection  growing  into  a  ci\'il  war,  and  disturbing 
the  Levant,  had  created  this  locus  standi ;  and  the  inter- 
ference of  three  Powers,  led  by  Groat  Britain,  had 
redressed  the  mischief.  Ko  like  door  had  then  been 
opened  in  the  other  Christian  provinces  of  Turkey.  The 
dispute  upon  the  Holy  Places  in  1853  had  very  partially 
opened  it,  when  liussia  demanded  for  herself  exclusively 
an  enlarged  right  of  inter-s-ention  on  behalf  of  the  Oriental 
Christians.  It  thus  became  necessary,  in  determining  the 
policy  of  the  future,  to  take  notice  of  the  condition  of  the 
subject  races.  The  greatest  authoi'ities,  and  pre-emin- 
ently Lord  Stratford  de  liedelilfe,  believed  in  the  capacity 
of  the  Porte  by  internal  reforms  to  govern  its  subjects  on 
the  principle  of  civil  equality.  The  resolution  therefore 
was  taken  to  pursue  this  end,  but  without  that  infringe- 
ment of  the  Porte's  sovereign  rights  which  Pussia  had 
attempted  ;  and  this  resolution  was  formally  embodied  in 
a  protocol  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  by  the  Allies  and  by 
Austria.  The  conclusion  of  the  peace  in  1856  fell  to  the 
lot  of  Lord  Palmerston  and  his  colleagues.  In  the  inte;est 
of  the  Porte,  and  of  the  general  peace  of  Europe,  tlu-y 
cancelled  the  rights  of  separate  interference  preSnously 
possessed  and  claimed  by  Russia.  They  took  the  Piin- 
cipalities  under  a  direct  European  protection.     On  behalf 


]  12  LIFE    or   THE    PEIXCE    COIS^SOET. 

of  the  subject  races  generally,  they  embodied  in  the 
treaty  the  record  of  the  Hatti-humayoum,  or  edict  issued 
by  the  Sultan,  which  purported  to  establish  securely  the 
civil  equality  of  all  races  and  religions  in  Turkey.  This 
was  undoubtedly  a  covenant  on  the  part  of  the  Sultan. 
But  it  was  a  covenant  without  penalty  for  breach  ;  for 
the  Powers  expressly  renounced  any  right  to  call  him  to 
account,  not  however,  generally,  but  only  as  growing  out 
of  the  communication  he  had  made.  It  was  thus,  in 
cancelling  the  Russian  treaties  with  the  Porte,  that  the 
Powers  of  Europe  first  became,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in 
185G,  responsible,  in  the  last  I'esort,  for  securing  the 
government  of  the  subject  races  in  Turkey  on  principles 
of  civil  equality. 

17.  The  terms  demanded  from  llussia  before  the  war  had 
been  exceedingly  moderate.  When  the  war  had  broken 
out,  the  Allies  justly  availed  themselves  of  their  under- 
stood right  to  enlarge  these  terms.  Now,  in  July  1854, 
appeared  on  the  ground  for  the  first  time  the  celebrated 
Pour  Points.  After  the  fall  of  Sebastopol,  they  were 
again  enlarged ;  a  territorial  cession,  the  extinction  and 
not  merely  the  limitation  of  naval  power  in  the  Plack  Sea, 
and  some  provisions  relating  to  the  Baltic,  were  exacted 
from  Eussia.  In  like  manner  we  are  now  (as  far  as 
is  known)  witnessing  the  expansion  of  the  minimised 
demands  of  the  Conference  at  Constantinople  into  a  real 
and  elfective  liberation  of  Bulgaria,  the  cession  of  Armenia, 
and  perhaps  other  conditions.  But  what  it  is  curious  to 
note  is  the  relative  attitudes  of  the  Court  and  tlie  Cabinet 
of  Lord  Palmerston  at  the  time  of  the  Peace.  We  must 
look  upon  that  Peace,  according  to  the  evidence  of  Mr. 
Martin's  volume,  as  due  to  the  Cabinet,  and  as  accepted 
at  Windsor  on  Constitutional  grounds,  ruthcrthan  because 


LIFE    OF   THE   PEINCE    CONSOET.  113 

it  was  approved  on  its  own  merits.     On  March  21,  1856 
(p.  470),  the  Prince  writes: — 

"  The  Peace  is  to  be  signed  on  Montlay.  It  is  not  sucli  as  we 
could  l.ave  wished ;  still  infinitely  to  be  preferred  to  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  wur,  with  the  present  compliciition  of  general  policy." 

The  views  of  the  Queen  are  expressed  in  a  letter  to  the 
Emperor  on  April  3  (p.  473)  : — 

"Although  sharing  in  the  feeling  of  the  majority  of  my  people, 
who  Ihink  this  Peace  is  i)eriiai)S  a  little  premature,  I  feel  bound  to 
tell  you  that  I  approve  highly  of  the  terms  in  whii-h  it  is  couclieil, 
as  a  result  not  unworthy  of  the  sacrifices  made  by  us  in  comniou 
dining  this  just  war,  and  as  insuring,  so  far  as  this  is  possible,  tho 
Btaliility  and  the  equilibrium  of  Europe." 

18.  Even  those  who  do  not  at  all  think  the  Peace  to 
have  been  premature  must,  as  Avitnesses,  corroborate  the 
opinion  of  Her  Majesty  with  respect  to  the  popular 
sentiment  at  the  time.  This  had,  during  the  negotiations 
of  1853,  been  calm  and  moderate  in  a  high  degree.  It 
was  first  thrown  into  excitement*  by  the  destruction 
of  the  Turkish  fleet  at  Sinope ;  which,  being  simply  a 
military  coup,  was,  under  some  unknown  code  of  senti- 
ment, branded  as  a  massacre.  The  sufferings  of  the 
Army  during  the  winter  very  greatly  heightened,  as  was 
luitural,  the  susceptibility  of  tlie  country.  But  now  in 
October  1854  the  Prince  writes  (p.  137)  tliat  men,  "if 
they  have  seen  blood,  are  no  longer  tlie  same,  and  are  not 
to  be  controlled.  .  .  .  The  cry  now  is  for  the  annihihition 
of  liussia."  It  was  much  to  the  credit  of  Lord  Palmerstou 
and  his  Cabinet,  that  the  Peace  was  actually  made ;    for 


*  [Some  would  place  the  first  symi)toms  of  disturbance  in  the 
balance  of  tlu'  jiopular  mind  a  little,  but  ouly  a  very  little,  earlier. — • 
W.  E.  G.,  1878.] 

I.  I 


114  LIFE    OF   THE    PEIIv'CE    CONSOET. 

it  was  not  without  hazard  to  their  popuharity  that  the 
work  was  carried  through. 

19.  Such  is,  we  believe,  a  fair  outline  of  the  case  of  the 
Crimean  War,  as  it  is  exhibited  in  this  volume.  That 
war  passed  through  all  the  phases  of  popularity;  the 
people,  and  especially  the  newspapers,  were  so  fond  of  it 
while  it  lasted,  that  they  were,  as  we  have  seen,  reluctant 
to  let  it  end.  It  is  an  unquestionable  fact,  that  Mr. 
Cobden  and  Mr.  Bright,  who  stoutly  and  most  disinter- 
estedly opposed  it,  and  who,  with  the  bloom  of  the  Corn 
Law  triumph  upon  them,  wore  before  it  began  the  most 
popular  men  in  the  country,  lost  for  the  time,  by  their 
opposition  to  it,  all  hold  upon  the  general  public.  The 
war,  however,  soon  and  even  rapidly  waned  in  favour. 
At  length  it  came  to  be  looked  upon  by  many,  if  not  by 
most,  as  an  admitted  folly.  The  nation  appeared  to  have 
come  round  to  the  opinion  of  Cobden  and  of  Bright. 
And  yet  the  war  had  attained  its  purpose  ;  which  was,  to 
repress  efEectually  the  aggression  of  Kussia,  and  to  secure 
to  Tuikey  breathing-time  and  full  scope  for  the  reform  of 
its  government. 

20.  It  may  be  said  that,  after  all,  she  did  not  reform  her 
government.  Most  true ;  but  it  is  only  within  a  short  time 
that  this  fact  has  become  at  all  generally  known  to  our 
countrymen.  And,  moreover,  this  reform  was  not,  pro- 
perly speaking,  the  object  of  the  war,  but  rather  an  aim 
incidental  to  the  conditions  of  the  Peace.  Wliy,  theii, 
did  it  fall  into  disfavour?  Because  men  estimated  its 
object,  not  as  it  ai)pears  in  this  volume,  not  as  it  was 
drawn  out  in  the  minds  of  the  statesmen  who  made  tho 
war,  but  according  to  their  own  unauthorised  and  exag- 
gerated ideas  of  its  aim,  and  of  the  position  of  the  several 
parties.     Turkey,  it  had  then  been  too  commonly  held, 


LITE  OF  Tin;  i-niNCE  coxsokt.  115 

was  a  young  vigorous  country,  only  wanting  an  open 
and  calm  atmosphere  to  break  out  into  the  beauty  and 
bloom  of  a  young  civilisation.  Eussia  was  to  be  cut  into 
morsels,  or  at  the  least  to  bo  crij)pled  by  the  amputation 
of  important  members.  The  extravagance  of  these  antici- 
pations led  to  disappointment ;  and  the  disappointment, 
for  which  people  had  themselves,  or  perhaps  their  n(nvs- 
papers,  to  thank,  Avas  avenged  upon  the  Crimean  War. 

21.  The  persons  wlio  are  really  eutith;d  to  vaunt  their 
foresight  in  this  matter,  as  superior  alike  to  the  views  of 
Sovereigns  and  of  statesmen,  are  the  few,  the  very  few, 
wlio  objected  to  the  war  from  the  beginning  to  the  end, 
and  who  founded  this  objection  not  upon  a  ijhilanthropic 
yet  scarcely  rational  proscription  of  wai-  under  all  circum- 
stances and  conditions,  but  upon  a  deeper  insight  into 
the  nature  and  foundations  of  Mahometan  poAver  over 
Christian  races,  than  liad  fallen  to  the  lot  either  of  diplo- 
macy or  of  statesmanship.  Of  these,  perhaps  the  most 
distinguished  are  Mr.  Freeman  ami  Dr.  Newman,  both  of 
whom  in  1853  proclainunl  the  hopeless  natm-c,  not  of  the 
Ottoman  as  such,  but  of  the  Ottoman  ascendancy.  15oth 
have  rcpul)lisbed  their  works  of  that  date,  and  Mr  Free- 
man has  taken  a  most  active  and  able  part  in  all  the 
recent  controversies;  in  which,  to  the  surprise  of  many 
admirers,  the  living  voice  of  Dr.  Newman  has  not  once 
been  heard. 

22.  Independently  of  its  actual  history,  the  Crimean 
"War  has  in  various  unexpected  ways  left  its  mark  upon  us. 
The  fiictitious  r(])utation,  the  thin  gloss  of  character,  with 
which  it  invested  Turkey,  enaliled  tbat  most  corrupt  of 
States  to  ape  with  effect  one  great  vice  of  civilisation,  by 
accumulating  in  twenty  years  of  peace  a  debt  of  two 
hundred  millions.     The  market  value  of  this  debt  is  at 

I  2 


116  LITE    OF   THE    PKIXCE    COXSOET. 

present  at  most  twenty  millions  ;  and  he  -svould  be  a  san- 
guine man  who  could  believe  that,  with  the  restoration  of 
peace,  it  could  ever  reach  one-fourth  of  the  sum  which 
Turkey  pledged  herself  to  pay.  This  vast  amount  was 
divided  between  the  profits  of  middlemen,  the  peculations 
of  Pachas,  the  unbounded  cost  of  the  profligacy  of  Sultans, 
the  payment  of  old  dividends  out  of  new  capitals,  and,  it 
must  be  added,  the  creation  of  a  highly  respectable  iron 
fleet,  and  of  an  excellent  war  materiel,  which  has  cost  the 
Russians  many  a  thousand  lives.  All  this,  "we  appre- 
hend, has  been  done  mainly  at  the  charges  of  France  and 
England,  whose  joint  losses  on  the  Turkish  debt  may  be 
thought  to  form  a  sort  of  disastrous  postscript  to  the 
Crimean  alliance,  and  a  pendant  to  the  hundi'ed  and  fifty 
millions  which  they  spent  upon  the  War. 

23.  There  were  two  other  changes,  which  became  per- 
ceptible after  the  conflict,  and  which  ought,  perhaps,  to 
be  referred  to  it  as  a  cause.  One  of  them  is  the  more 
feverish  condition  of  the  public  mind  with  regard  to 
aff'airs  abroad. 

Tlie  long  continuance  of  the  French  Revolutionary  War, 
and  the  numerous  disasters  which  preceded  a  final  triumph, 
mainly  due  to  the  intoxication  of  Napoleon,  fairly  nau- 
seated the  public  taste,  or  appetite,  for  arbitraments  of 
the  sword.  Moreover,  there  had  been  entailed  upon  us  a 
debt  nominally  of  eight,  but  really  of  nine,  hundri'd 
millions ;  a  sum  which  probably  represented  more  nearly 
a  third  than  a  fourth  part  in  value  of  the  entire  posses- 
sions of  the  country,  so  that  every  man  who  thought  him- 
self owner  of  three  thousand  pounds,  in  trutli  owned  not 
greatly  more  than  two.  Together  with  this  Debt,  thero 
was  an  elaborate  system  of  protective  legislation,  fettering 
the  industry  by  which  alone  our  burdens  could  be  borne 


LIFE    OF   THE    PRIIfCE    CONSOHT.  117 

or  diininislicfl,  and  a  widely  spread,  and  but  too  natural 
and  intelligible,  political  disaffection.  From  1815  until 
the  Crimean  period,  tbe  nation  maybe  said  to  have  formed 
one  great  peace  society ;  and  invasion  of  the  island  by  a 
hostile  power,  though  it  had  been  brouglit  so  near  under 
Napoleon,  was  hardly  dreamt  of. 

24.  During  that  period,  a  fresh  guarantee  of  peace 
seemed  to  be  afforded  us  in  a  close  and  cordial  alliance 
with  France,  which  seems  to  have  been  sublimated,  so 
to  speak,  into  a  very  notable  personal  affection  between 
the  reigning  houses.  In  August  1855  Her  Majesty, 
habitually  measured  in  thought  and  expression,  says  of 
the  Emperor  (p.  351)  : — 

"I  know  few  penj)Io  whom  I  liayo  felt  involuniarily  nioro  inclined 
to  conliiie  in,  and  speak  unreseivcdlj-  to;  I  sliuuld  not  fear  .s;iyin<^ 
anything  to  him.  I  felt — I  do  not  know  how  to  express  it — safe 
with  him." 

A  letter  on  the  29th  of  the  same  month  ends  as  follows 
(p.  522)  :- 

"  Permettezqne  j'exprimo  ici  tons  les  sentiments  de  tcndre  amitie 
et  d'aft'eetion  avec  lesqncls  je  me  dis,  Sire  et  clier  Frere,  de  Votie 
Mnjeste  Impe'rialo  la  bien  bonne  et  affectionnee  Soour  et  Amie, 

"Victoria  R." 

And  even  of  the  Prince  the  Queen  had  reported  (p. 
351):— 

"He  quite  admits  tliat  it  is  extraordinary  how  very  miicli 
attached  one  becomes  to  the  Emperor,  when  one  lives  with  him 
quite  at  one's  ease,  and  intimately." 

In  1857,  during  the  Indian  Mutiny,  our  friendship  was, 
as  it  were,  reconsecrated  by  the  invitation  of  the  Emperor 
to  send  our  troops  through  France  on  the  way  to  the  East. 
Yet  in  1859,  after  two  short  years,  our  Military  and  Naval 


118  LIFE    OF   THE   PEINCE    CONSORT. 

Estimates  were  largely  augmented,  and  a  new  and  very 
costly  scheme  of  fortifications  was  proposed,  under  the 
influence  of  a  general  apprehension  that  invasion  from 
France  had  become  a  probable  contingency,  requiring 
great  schemes  of  defensive  precaution.  When  the  civil 
war  in  America  led  to  a  vast  development  of  military 
power,  British  susceptibility  fastened  on  the  United  States 
as  its  object,  and  the  belief  became  fashionable  that  we 
were  to  be  invaded  in  Canada.  Wlien  Germany  had 
obtained,  by  the  War  of  1870-1,  the  greatest  triumph 
recorded  in  her  annals,  then  it  was  Germany  that  was  to 
invade  us.  In  the  intervals  of  these  alarms,  the  danger 
of  India  from  Russia  was  always  available  to  sustain  this 
morbid,  and  somewhat  womanish,  excitement. 

25.  The  second  of  the  changes,  to  which  we  have  re- 
ferred, has  been  the  immense  increase  in  the  Military  and 
JS^aval  Estimates  since  tlie  Crimean  War.  Without  entering 
into  minute  details,  it  may  be  stated  that  our  average  annual 
expenditure  under  these  heads  is  much  more  than  twice 
the  amount,  at  which  it  was  placed  in  1835  by  the  Con- 
servative Government  of  Sir  Robert  Peel ;  and  that,  after 
setting  aside  special  expenditure  for  secondary  wars,  the 
average  annual  charge  for  the  years  1830-50  did  not 
greatly  exceed  half  what  it  has  been  for  the  years  1857-77. 
It  would  not  be  fair  to  ascribe  the  whole  of  this  change  to 
the  altered  humour  of  tlie  public.  Something  considerable 
is  due  to  the  chauge  in  armaments,  and  the  increased  value 
of  labour.  Yet  we  believe  it  to  be  the  fact  that  that 
altered  humour,  assiduously  wrought  upon  by  the  pro- 
fessional spirit,  and  by  the  promoters  of  expenditure  in 
general,  has  been  the  main  cause  of  the  alteration,  and 
not  a  real  and  substantive  necessity.  There  has  been  one 
important  change  made,  which  has  of  itself  constituted  a 


LIFE    OF   THE   PRINCE    CONSOKT.  119 

great  and  most  valuable  economy.  We  have  been  enabled 
to  give  up,  in  the  greater  part  of  our  colonies,  the  dan- 
gerous and  costly  practice  of  studdinjj  them,  under  a  pro- 
fessed notion  of  defence,  with  small  fractions  of  the  British 
army.  This  economy  renders  yet  more  striking  that  vast 
increase  of  charge,  of  which  only  the  increased  wealth  of 
the  country  at  large  has  made  it,  as  a  whole,  so  little 
disposed  to  complain. 

26.  There  have  been  arguments  used  on  behalf  of  this 
change  of  system.  One  of  them  has  been  the  growth  of 
Continental  armaments.  But  the  chief  powers  of  the 
Continent  have  been  engaged  in  wars  on  a  large  scale, 
with  which  we  have  had  nothing  to  do.  France,  Prussia, 
and  Austria  have,  each  of  them,  had  two  such  wars  in  the 
last  twenty  years.  Then  it  has  been  a  favourite  plea 
that,  by  keeping  liberal  military  and  naval  establishments, 
we  should  be  placed  in  a  state  of  security  and  saved  from 
panics.  But  the  result  has  been  exactly  the  reverse. 
While  our  expenditure  remained  low,  the  dread  of  inva- 
sion was  a  thing  hardly  known.  We  make  this  statement 
advisedly,  notwithstanding  the  rofcrencc  to  panics  in  and 
before  1852,  mentioned  by  the  Prince  in  February  of  that 
year  ('  Life,'  ii.  433).  These  supposed  panics  we  take  to 
have  been  no  more  than  whispers  within  the  Az'my  and  the 
Court.  They  did  not  really  lay  hold  on  the  public  mind. 
But,  since  our  charges  began  to  be  progressively  and 
largely  augmented,  we  have  had,  it  may  be  said,  a  con- 
tinuing series  of  panics,  with  first  one  Power  and  then 
another  as  the  object  of  our  ajjprehensions.  Again,  it  has 
been  said,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  favourable  to  the 
new  system.  And  that  is,  in  some  measure,  true  of  the 
great  Duke  in  his  later  years ;  but  whoever  heard  of  it 
when  liL!  was  Prime  Minister,  or  before  old  age  was  upon 


120  LIPE    OP   THE    PRINCE    CONSOKT. 

him?  It  was  as  he  approached  fourscore,  during  the 
Administration  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  that  the  Duke  became 
an  alarmist.  But  it  is  unquestionable  that  his  fears  were, 
notwithstanding  his  great  authority,  regarded  by  that  pru- 
dent Minister  and  his  colleagues  as  due  to  the  commencing 
weakness  of  age,  and  were  not  allowed  to  act  upon  the 
amounts  of  force  which  from  year  to  year  they  proposed 
to  Parliament  for  the  defence  of  the  country. 

27.  Bi:t,  lastly,  it  was  found  very  convenient  to  ascribe 
the  very  sad  sufferings  and  shortcomings  of  the  winter  spent 
before  Sebastopol  to  the  previous  economies  of  the  time  of 
peace.  Evidently  an  impression  had  been  made  to  this 
effect  (p.  486)  upon  the  just  and  intelligent  mind  of  the 
Queen  herself.  But  what  is  the  warrant  for  it?  The 
war  broke  out ;  and  we,  who  had  no  pretensions  to  be  a 
great  military  power,  actually  fought  the  battle  of  the 
Alma  with  a  somewhat  larger  number  of  men  than  France, 
at  that  time  the  first  military  Power  in  the  world,  had 
been  able  to  find  and  transport  for  the  purpose.  It  is 
said,  and  is  believed,  that  after  that  battle  the  British 
General  felt  a  confidence  in  the  power  of  the  Allies  at 
once  to  master  Sebastopol,  which  the  French  did  not 
feel,  and  that  it  was  their  negative  which  prevented  the 
attempt.  Next,  we,  who  had  been  paralysed  forsooth  by 
economy,  had  assigned  to  us  the  right  flank  to  the  south 
of  the  fortress,  which  was  the  post  of  danger,  while  the 
French  forces  lay  in  comparalivc  security  between  the 
British  and  the  sea.  Upon  us,  in  consequence,  came  the 
heavy  stress  of  Inkermann,  and  right  well  did  our  gallant 
soldiers  bear  it.  True,  the  ranks  of  our  Army  were  after- 
wards miserably  thinned  by  sickness.  The  country  was 
justly  irritated,  and  demanded  inquiry.  The  demand  was 
met  not  with  a  single  inquiry,  but  (little  to  our  credit) 


LIFE    OF    THE    rraXCE    COXSORT.  121 

vrhh  no  less  than  three.  Tliere  was  one  by  a  Committee  of 
Parliament;  one  by  Eoyal  Commissioners  sent  to  the  spot; 
and  one  by  a  Eoard  of  Officers  at  Chelsea.  They  delivered 
three  different  and  conflicting  verdicts ;  but  no  one  of 
them  found  that  the  cause  of  the  mischief  lay  in  par- 
simony practised  before  the  war ;  the  charge  is  one  often 
and  conveniently  made,  but  never  proved. 

28.  It  is  true,  without  doubt,  that  oiir  organisation  was 
deficient  in  various  branches.  But  it  has  never  been 
shown  that  the  really  needful  improvements  might  not 
have  been  made  within  those  general  limits  of  military 
charge  which  subsisted  during  the  reign  of  comparative 
economy.  The  truth  we  believe  to  be  this.  Our  military 
authorities  were  wedded  to  the  antiquated  system  of 
soldiering  for  life,  which  stands  in  diametrical  opposition 
to  the  laws  of  military  practice  now  universally  acknow- 
ledged. As  long  as  that  system  prevailed,  it  was  natundly 
deemed  the  most  essential  point  of  all  to  keep  up  a  force, 
numerically  considerable,  of  old  soldiers.  To  this  end  not 
only  persuasion,  but  something  like  artifice,  was  addressed. 
So  many  i-egiments  were  kept  in  British  Korth  America, 
80  many  in  the  West  Indies,  and  in  other  Colonial  gar- 
risons ;  because  this  dispersion  presented  the  aspect  of  a 
quasi-military  service,  and  a  portion  of  the  army  was,  as  it 
were,  kept  out  of  view.  The  economies  were  accordingly 
thrown  to  some  extent  iipon  the  wrong  points ;  the  mafcricl 
was  very  low  ;  a  long  period  was  allowed  to  pass  without 
measures — by  far  the  most  vital  of  all — for  improving  the 
condition  of  the  soldier ;  and  the  impulse  towards  those 
measures,  and  towards  real  reform  in  the  Army,  when  it  did 
come,  was  a  civil  rather  than  a  military  impulse.  Indeed, 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  in  his  later  years  the  Duke 
of  "Wellington,  alarmist  as  he  had  become,  was  also  an 


122  LIFE    OF   THE   PEINCE    CONSOKT. 

obstacle  to  the  detailed  and  toilsome  work  of  administra- 
tive reform  in  tlie  Army.  It  had,  however,  been  fairly 
begun  under  his  pupil,  Lord  Hardinge,  alike  an  able 
administrator  and  an  excellent  man;  and  it  was  in  course 
of  prosecution  when  the  Crimean  AVar  broke  upon  us. 

29.  The  Prince  could  not  but  bring  from  Germany 
military  conceptions  which  were,  as  to  certain  aims,  much 
in  advance  of  those  current  among  ourselves  ;  and  at  the 
epoch  of  the  war,  as  well  as  before  it,  his  active  mind  was 
turned  to  the  consideration  of  our  deficiencies.  He  laid 
his  views  before  the  Government  of  Lord  Aberdeen  in  an 
able  Memorandum  (p.  185),  which  contains  much  import- 
ant matter.  He  had,  indeed,  so  early  as  in  his  letter  of 
February  19,  1852,  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  suggested 
the  invaluable  system  of  reserves,  which  is  still  so  feebly 
and  inadequately  worked.  In  other  respects,  however, 
his  paper  can  hardly  be  said  to  move  upon  the  lines  of 
Army  reformers  generally,  since  it  docs  not  include  any  one 
of  three  points  which  with  them  were  essential !  namely, 
short  service  for  the  men,  abolition  of  purchase  for  the 
officers,  and  the  abandonment  of  the  expense  of  garrison 
forces  in  colonies  other  than  military  posts. 

30.  We  have  already  pointed  out  that  tlie  character  of 
the  Volume  before  us  is  historical  quite  as  much  as  biogra- 
phical, and  we  shall  further  notice  in  succession  two  or 
three  points  of  interest  on  which  it  throws  a  light. 

The  attachment  of  the  Sovereign  and  her  Consort  to  8ir 
liobcrt  Peel,  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  Lord  Aberdeen, 
led  them  to  watch  with  interest  the  working  of  the 
Aberdeen  Cabinet,  in  which  the  Peelites  held  no  less  than 
six  offices,  besides  having  four  members  of  their  small 
party  in  the  most  iuiportnnt  positions  outside  the  Cabinet. 
The  six  Cabinet  Ministers  were  Lord  Aberdeen,  the  Duke 


LIFE    OF   THE    nUNCi;    COXSOKT.  123 

of  Arp-yll,*  Sir  James  Graham,  the  Duke  of  Xewcastlc, 
;Mr.  (Uadstone,  ami  ^fr.  Sydney  Herhert.  The  four 
outside  the  door  were  Mr.  Cardwcll  at  the  Board  of  Trade, 
Lord  Cannini?  at  the  Post  Office,  Lord  St.  Germans, 
Yiceroy  of  Irehmd.  and  Sir  John  Young,  Chief  Secretary. 
Another  Cahinet  Jlinistcr,  Sir  William  ^Eolesworth,  was 
perhaps  more  nearly  associated  with  tliem  than  with  the 
AVliii's.  Holding  this  large  sliare  of  official  power,  the 
Peelitcs  did  not  bring  more  than  about  thirty  independent 
votes  to  the  support  of  the  Ministry,  in  addition  to  which 
they  neutralised  tlie  Opposition  of  perhaps  as  many  more 
members  who  sat  on  the  other  side  of  the  House.  Mr. 
Mai-tin  says  (p.  90),  "It  was  apparent  to  all  the  workl 
that  no  cor(lial  unanimity  existed  between  the  Peelito 
section  of  the  Ministry  and  their  colleagues." 

31.  This  is  an  entire  mistake.  It  must  be  stated,  to  the 
credit  of  all  parties,  but  especially  of  the  ^Yhig  section  of 
that  Cabinet,  that  although  the  proportions  of  official 
power  were  so  different  from  those  of  the  voting  strength 
in  Parliament,  there  was  no  sectional  demarcation,  nor 
any  approach  to  it,  within  the  Cabinet.  In  proof  of  this 
statement,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  when,  in  the  recess 
of  1853-4,  Lord  Palmerston  had  resigned  his  office  on 
account  of  the  impending  Reform  Bill,  and  it  was  desired, 
to  induce  him  to  reconsider  his  decision,  the  two  persons 
who  were  chosen  for  the  duty  of  communicating  to  him 
the  wish  of  his  colleagues  were  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 
and  Mr.  Gladstone.  Not  even  when  the  Eastern  Question 
became  the  engrossing  subject  of  the  day  was  a  sectional 


*  The  Duke  of  Argyll  was  invited  at  a  very  early  age,  on  account  of 
his  hiijh  personal  character  ami  his  talent,  to  enter  the  Cabinet  oC  Lurd 
Aliercii'on,  but  he  diil  nut  beloUi;  to  the  ex-olKcial  corps  who  passed  by 
the  na\iie  of  Peelites,  while  he  was  iu  political  accordance  with  them. 


124  LIFE    OF   THE    rRIXCE    CONSORT. 

division  to  be  tracocl.  It  may  be  true,  if  nuances  are  to  be 
minutely  investigated,  that  the  Peclite  colour  was  on  the 
whole  a  shade  or  two  more  pacific  than  the  Whig ;  but 
even  this  is  true  of  the  leading  individuals  rather  than  of 
the  sections,  and  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that,  of  all  the 
steps  taken  by  that  Government  during  the  long  and  com- 
plicated negotiations  before  the  Crimean  War,  there  was 
not  one  which  was  forced,  as  will  sometimes  happen,  by  a 
majority  of  the  Cabinet  upon  the  minority.  Eifts  there 
were  without  doubt  in  the  imposing  structure,  but  they 
were  due  entirely  to  individual  views  or  pretensions,  and 
in  no  way  to  sectional  antagonism. 

32.  The  retirement  of  Lord  Aberdeen  was  a  subject  of 
grief  to  the  Court  and  to  his  friends  ;  but  he  was  so  far 
fortunate  that,  having  been  made  the  victim  of  a  cry,  partly 
popular  and  partly  due  to  political  feeling,  he  was  saved, 
as  was  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  from  the  responsibility  of 
an  act  of  difficult  and  doi;btful  choice.  Their  friends,  Sir 
James  Graham,  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert, 
were  less  happy.  It  was  their  fate  to  join  the  Cabinet  of 
Lord  Palmerston,  formed  at  a  critical  juncture,  after  some 
delay  and  difficulty,  and  then  to  quit  it  within  a  fortnight 
or  three  weeks.  The  cause  was  simply  and  solely  this. 
The  Aberdeen  Government  had  resisted,  unanimously  and 
strongly,  the  appointment  of  what  was  termed  the  Scbas- 
topol  Committee.  The  Palmerston  Government  set  out 
with  the  intention  of  continuing  that  resistance.  Its 
Head,  and  the  majority  of  its  members,  arrived  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  resistance  would  be  ineffectual ;  and 
they  determined  to  succumb.  The  Peclites  adhered  to 
their  text ;  and,  as  the  minority,  they  in  form  resigned, 
but  in  fact,  and  of  necessity,  they  were  driven  from  their 
offices.     Into  the  rights  of  the   question   we   shall  not 


LIFE    OF   THE    riilXCE    COXSOKT.  125 

inter;  but,  undoubtedly,  they  were  condemned  by  the 
general  opinion  out  of  doors.  Moreover,  as  in  the  letting- 
out  of  water,  the  breach,  once  made,  was  soon  and  con- 
siderably widened.  They  had  been  parties  in  the  Cabinet, 
not  only  to  the  war,  but  to  the  extension,  after  the  out- 
break had  taken  place,  of  the  conditions  required  from 
llussia.  But  when  it  appeared  that  those  demands  were 
to  be  still  further  extended,  or  were  to  be  interpreted  with 
an  unexpected  rigour,  and  that  the  practical  object  of  the 
Ministerial  policy  appeared  to  be  a  great  military  success 
in  prosecuting  the  siege  of  Sebastopol  to  a  triumphant 
issue,  they  declined  to  accompany  the  ^linistry  in  their 
course.  Again  they  met  with  the  condemnation  of  the 
country  ;  and  the  Prince  Consort,  while  indicating  his 
high  opinion  of  the  men,  has  recorded  (p.  298  et  alihi)  his 
adverse  judgment.  One  admission  may  perhaps  be  made 
in  their  favour.  In  the  innumerable  combinations  of  the 
political  chessboard,  there  is  none  more  difficult  for  an 
upright  man  than  to  discern  the  exact  path  of  duty,  when 
he  has  shared  in  bringing  his  country  into  war,  and  when, 
in  the  midst  of  that  war,  he  finds,  or  believes  himself  to 
find,  that  it  is  being  waged  for  pui'poses  in  excess  of  those 
which  he  had  approved. 

33.  The  course  of  the  Sebastopol  inquiries  likewise 
tended  to  show  that  the  high  Constitutional  doctrine  which 
they  had  set  up  could  not  be  infringed  with  impunity. 
They  had  held  that  the  inquiry  was  an  executive  duty,  and 
could  only  be  couduct(>d  aright  by  a  Commission  under  the 
authority  of  the  Crown.  The  country  felt,  or  thouglit,  it 
had  obtained  a  triumph  by  the  appointment  of  a  Parlia- 
mentary Committee,  which  was  capped,  as  we  have  said, 
by  a  Commission,  this  in  its  turn  being  traversed  by  a 
Board  of  Officers.    The  Committee  censured  the  Ministers ; 


126  LIFE    OF   THE    PEINCE    CONSOET. 

though  it  was  phiin  that,  in  the  business  of  supply,  they, 
and  Mr.  Sidney  Herbert  in  particular,  with  an  indefatig- 
able diligence,  had  run  far  ahead  of  any  demands  received 
from  the  camp.  The  Commission  censured  the  executive 
departments  of  the  army  on  the  spot.  The  Board  of 
Officers  acquitted  the  military,  and  censured  the  com- 
missariat at  home.  No  attempt  was  permitted  to  try  the 
question  to  its  core,  as  between  these  conflicting  judg- 
ments. Mr.  Roebuck  very  properly  made  a  motion  to 
bring  the  Report  of  his  Committee  under  the  consideration 
of  the  House,  when  the  other  two  competing  verdicts 
would  have  been  compared  with  it,  and  with  one  another. 
The  Peelites  supported  his  motion.  But  he  was  defeated 
by  a  large  majority  ;  so  that  the  question  Avhich  broke  up 
one  Cabinet,  and  formidably  rent  another,  which  agitated 
England  and  sorely  stained  her  military  reputation  in  the 
eyes  of  Europe,  remained  then,  and  remains  now,  untried 
by  any  court  of  final  appeal.  Nor  did  this  determined 
smothering  of  so  great  a  matter  cause  public  displeasure. 
On  the  contrary,  as  ~Sh\  Martin  observes  (p.  308),  it  gave 
satisfaction.  Tlie  feeling,  he  says  tndy,  was  turned  into 
other  channels.  "  The  past  could  not  be  mended — best 
leave  it  alone."  The  nation  was  befooled  ;  and  befooled 
with  pleasure,  and  by  its  own  act. 

34.  A  sui'vey  of  these  years,  conducted  in  an  historic 
spirit,  will,  we  think,  leave  on  the  mind,  among  other 
impressions,  a  sense  of  the  great  incidental  evils  which 
accompany  the  breaking  up  of  those  singularly,  but  fiuely 
and  strongly,  organised  wholes,  our  known  political  parties. 
Together  with  Sir  Robert  Peel,  nearly  the  whole  official 
corps  of  the  Conservatives  was  discharged  in  184(5;  and 
the  discharge  proved  to  be  a  final  one.  The  Tories,  when 
brought  into  office,  had  to  supply  the  highest  places  with 


La&  Angeles,  Cak 

LTFE    Of    TUE    PUINCE    C0N30KT.  127 

raw,  that  is  to  say,  fresh,  recruits.  This  could  not  he 
without  some  detriment  to  the  public  ser\-ice  ;  but  ju.stiee 
requires  the  admission  that  the  body  of  English  gentiy, 
trained  in  the  English  foshion,  affords  material  of  great 
aptitude  for  public  lil'c.  There  were  evils  on  the  other  side 
much  more  serious  than  this.  It  took  no  less  than  thir- 
teen years  to  eli'cct  the  final  incor{)oration  of  the  Peelites 
into  the  Liberal  party.  When  they  took  their  places 
among  its  leaders,  the  official  staff  on  one  side  was 
doubled,  as  on  the  other  side  it  was  almost  annihilated. 
It  is  possible  that  to  this  duplication  ought  greatly  to  be 
attributed  those  personal  discontents  and  political  cross- 
purposes  for  which  the  Liberal  party  has  of  late  years 
been  disastrously  remarkable.  Moreover,  for  eleven  out  of 
these  thirteen  years  of  disembodied  existence,  the  Peelites 
were  independent  members.  They  were  like  roving  ice- 
bergs, on  which  men  could  not  land  with  safety,  but  with 
which  ships  might  come  into  perilous  collision.  Their 
weight  was  too  great  not  to  count,  but  it  counted  first 
this  way  and  then  that.  It  is  not  alleged  against  them 
that  their  conduct  was  dishonourable,  but  their  politiral 
action  was  attended  with  much  public  inconvenience ;  and 
even  those  who  think  they  were  enlightened  statesmen 
may  feel  that  the  existence  of  these  sensibly  large  segments 
of  a  representative  chamber,  in  a  state  of  detachment  from 
all  the  organisation  of  party,  acts  upon  the  Parliamentary 
vessel  as  a  cargo  of  corn  in  bulk  acts,  in  foul  weather,  on 
the  trim  of  a  ship  at  sea.  Again,  as  a  party,  they  had 
been,  like  their  leader,  pacific  and  economical.  Tbe 
effects  of  their  separation  from  official  Liberalism  during 
the  first  Government  of  Lord  Palmerston  were  easily  trace- 
able in  the  policy  of  that  Government  as  to  various 
matters  of  importance.      From  tliis  time  onwards  Lord 


128  UFE    OF    THE    PRINCE    CO]SrSORT. 

Aberdeen  was  in  retirement,  and  Peelism  ceased  to  be,  as 
Buch,  in  contact  with  the  Court,  at  which  it  had  certainly 
weighed  as  an  important  factor  of  political  opinion. 

35.  The  Prince  resembled  Lord  Aberdeen  in  this,  that, 
with  an  eminently  just  and  liberal  mind,  he  clung  to 
traditions  of  Continental  policy,  or  these  traditions  clung  to 
him  which  were  by  no  means  uniformly  liberal.  We  cannot 
but  trace  his  hand  in  the  recognition  (p.  44)  of  the  Five 
Great  Powers  as  having  been,  "  since  the  peace  of  1815," 
the  guarantors  of  treaties,  the  guardians  of  civilisation, 
the  champions  of  right.  AVhen  Sardinia  was  struggling 
for  the  liberation  of  Italy,  and  when  she  had  acted  as  a 
very  timely  ally  in  the  Crimean  ^\'ar,  Belgium  is  emphati- 
cally described  (p.  501)  as  "  the  only  satisfactory  child  of 
the  new  epoch  " :  and  in  conversation  with  Louis  Napoleon 
in  1854,  the  Prince  wished,  indeed,  that  Austria  were  out 
of  Lombardy  for  Austria's  own  sake,  but  held  that  she 
could  not  recognise  its  title  to  an  Italian  nationality,  and 
that  she  must  hold  it  for  the  sake  of  her  military  frontier 
(p.  119).  But  the  reconstituted  Italy  has  thus  far  been 
in  European  politics  a  Power  eminently  Conservative  ;  and 
the  only  fear  is  lest  she  should  be  seduced,  by  the  bad 
example  of  other  Powers,  into  speculations  and  schemes  of 
territorial  aggrandisement. 

3G.  We  have  still  to  offer  a  remark  on  the  important 
subject  of  the  Danubian  Principalities,  which  is  touched  by 
Mr.  Martin.  Subsequently  to  the  Peace  of  Paris,  Moldavia 
and  Wallachia  were  united  into  one  State  under  the  name 
of  Roumania,  and  after  a  time  there  was  placed  at  its  head 
a  foreign  Prince.  To  this  measure  Austria  and  the  Porto 
were  strongly  opposed ;  and  we  grieve  to  say  that  the 
influence  of  official  England  was  thrown  into  their  scale. 
Its  adoption  was  mainly  due  to  the  sound  instinct  and  the 


LIFE    OF   THE    PRINCE    CONSORT.  129 

decided  action  of  the  people  of  the  t^vo  Provinces ;  Avliich 
Russia  at  the  very  least  thought  it  prudent  not  to  thwart, 
and  which  France  energetically  favoured,  and  helped  on- 
wards to  a  successful  issue.  Lord  Clarendon  expressed 
the  opinion  (p.  466)  that,  if  these  Provinces  were  united 
under  a  foreign  Prince,  such  a  Prince  would  in  a  few  years 
be  able  to  declare  his  independence. 

37.  Mr.  ^lartin,  strangely  enough  to  our  mind,  says  that 
events  have  shown  how  just  were  these  apprehensions 
(p.  465).  Is  this  just  ?  AVhat  are  the  facts  ?  That  for 
twenty  years,  though  the  misgovernment  of  Turkey  would 
at  any  moment  have  afforded  a  pretext,  lloumania  remained 
in  nearly  motionless  submissiun  to  the  suzerainty  of  the 
Porte  ;  that  she  did  absolutely  nothing  to  assist  the  abortive 
Bulgarian  rebellion  of  May  1876  ;  that  she  showed  no 
synqiathy  with  the  Servian  and  ^Montenegrin  wars  of  that 
summer ;  and  that  she  did  not  take  a  step  of  any  kind  in 
opposition  to  the  Porte,  until  the  overpowering  might  of 
llussia  demanded  a  military  passage  through  her  territory, 
and  virtually  forced  her  into  active  hostilities.  Had  Turkey 
fulfilled  the  promises  of  civil  equality  which  she  has 
shamelessly  and  obstinately  broken,  but  which  Lord 
Clarendon  honestly  believed  she  would  be  able  and  dis- 
posed to  keep,  what  opportunity  would  Roumania  have 
had,  even  if  so  inclined,  to  rise  against  Turkey  ?  Did  not 
her  quietude,  during  nearly  two  years  of  troubles,  partly 
bursting,  and  partly  festering,  on  her  frontier,  show  how 
wise  it  had  been  to  give  her  contentment  and  some 
solidity  of  existence  ?  If  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  had 
continued  in  tlieir  state  of  severance  and  weakness,  it 
would  have  either  been  not  more  difficult,  but  much 
easier,  for  Russia  to  agitate  them  by  intrigue  duiiug 
the  tranquil  years  1856-75,  or  to  issue  her  commands  in 

I.  £ 


130  LIFE    OF   THE    PETNCE    CON^SORT. 

1877  for  supplying  a  free  passage  through  their  land  to 
her  armies. 

38.  But  we  cannot  ha\re  any  quarrel  with  Mr.  Martin. 
We  must  part  from  him  in  the  good  humour  which  gratitude 
inspires.  In  the  production  of  his  work,  he  is  without 
doubt  ministering  to  the  just  demand  of  a  fond  and  un- 
quenchable affection  in  the  highest  place.  But  he  is  also 
performing  a  great  service  to  the  country :  he  gives  the 
permanence  of  the  written  record  to  a  life  of  public  duty, 
which  is  certainly  the  most  conspicuous  that  the  nine- 
teenth century  has  witnessed.  It  is  perhaps  also  the 
noblest  and  the  purest :  the  only  rival  to  it  in  these 
respects,  that  we  are  bokl  enough  to  name,  is  the  life  of 
the  noble-minded  man  who  died  as  Earl  Spencer,  but 
who  was  better  known  as  Lord  Althorp. 

We  venture  to  hope  that  Mr.  Martin's  labours  will  not 
end  either  witli  three  volumes,  or  Mith  the  fourth ;  but 
that  when  his  work  is  completed,  he  will  with  new 
energy  reduce  it  to  a  form  suited  for  a  wide  popular 
circulation.  Outside  the  circle  of  domestic  affections,  the 
proper  place  for  the  Prince's  memory  to  repose  in  is  the 
heart  of  the  people. 


V. 


THE  COUNTY  FRANCHISE,  AND  MR.  LOWE 
THEREON* 

1 .  Mr.  LowEf  and  I  are,  in  some  respecta,  not  ill  fitted  for 
a  friendly  duel  on  the  subject  of  the  representation  of  the 
people  in  Parliament.  He  did  not  confer,  and  I  did  not 
inflict,  a  speech  on  the  House  of  Commons,  when  the  sub- 
ject was  recently  under  discussion.  We  are  agreed,  as  I 
believe,  on  most  questions  of  politics,  indeed  rather  closely 
agreed  on  some  important  matters,  such  as  public  thrift, 
in  which  few  agree  with  either  of  us  ;  and  we  are  united, 
as  I  hope,  in  mutual  regard.  Moreover,  we  have  already, 
many  years  ago,  exhibited  opposite  leanings  upon  the 
question  whether  the  general  idea  of  extension  of  the 
suffrage  is  one  Avhich  ought  to  be  viewed  with  favour,  or 
the  reverse.  For  my  part,  whatever  may  be  the  case  with 
Mr.  Lowe,  I  have  this  chance  at  least  of  relative  impar- 
tiality, that  I  look  upon  the  cause  as  one  which  calls  upon 
me  for  adhesion  as  an  individual,  but  not  for  the  guidance 
of  others  in  any  larger  ciipaeity.  But  further,  our  history 
has  now  reached  a  point,  at  which  it  is  well  that  the  sub- 
ject of  a  further  extension  of  popular  fi-anchises  should  be 
"  bolted  to  the  bran."  For  w(!  are  again,  as  we  were  in 
1854,  in  1860,  and  in  1866,  open  to  one  of  the  greatest 


*  Reprinted  from  The  Nineteenth  Century  for  November  1877. 
t  See  Fortn'<jhtlij  Review,  October  1877. 

K    2 


132  THE    COrXTY   FEANCmSE, 

moral  dangers  that  can  beset  the  politics  of  a  self-governed 
country — the  danger  of  having  a  great  question  insincerely 
dealt  with. 

2.  By  the  large  majority  of  the  Liberal  party  the  prin- 
ciple of  such  an  extension  was  adopted  long  ago.  It  has  now 
the  deliberate  sanction  of  the  leader  in  each  House ;  and 
neither  Lord  Granville  nor  Lord  Hartington  is  a  man  given 
to  deal  lightly  with  serious  matters.  The  Ministers  have 
resisted  it  with  arguments  only  temporary  and  conven- 
tional ;  arguments  which  a  breath  may  at  any  moment 
blow  away.  Their  real  objection  to  conceding  it  is  plain. 
It  is  not  a  definite  fear  of  the  vote  which  the  agricultural 
householders  would  give,  but  a  fear  of  irritating  and 
estranging  the  farming  class  by  empowering  their  labourers 
to  give  a  vote  at  all ;  by  placing  in  a  minority  that  class 
which  now  has  the  command  of  the  agricultural  constitu- 
encies, and  thus  exchanging  a  certain  and  well-disciplined 
support  for  a  doubtful  many-sided  chance.  In  a  word, 
they  are  playing  with  the  question.  They  desire  the 
credit  of  a  settlement,  and  are  ready  to  step  in  between 
the  Liberal  leaders  and  their  work  ;  but  they  are  unwill- 
ing to  provoke  dangers  to  their  party,  now  asleep.  The 
only  thing  that  can  be  predicted  of  them  with  certainty 
is,  that  they  will  do  the  exact  opposite  of  that  which  was 
done  by  Sir  Robert  Peel  in  1829  and  1846:  they  will 
handle  the  subject,  to  the  best  of  their  judgment,  as  one 
which  may  legitimately  be  used,  either  by  adoption  or  by 
a  faint  and  procrastinating  repulse,  as  shall  best  suit  the 
interests  of  their  party.  Eut  this  is  a  motive  wliich,  even 
in  cases  where  it  may  be  fairly  entertained,  cannot  always, 
for  various  reasons,  be  professed.  So  the  speech  of  the 
present  majority  will  say  one  thing,  while  its  heart  con- 
ceals another.     Ilere  and  there  may  possibly  be  found  a 


AND    MK.    LOWE    THEEEOy.  133 

Liberal  -whose  line  Avill  be  not  identical,  but  parallel,  so 
as  to  strike  the  front  of  the  same  adversaries,  or  convei'g- 
ing,  so  as  to  reach  the  same  conclusion. 

3.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  we  are  in  danger  of  having  tlie 
question  insincerely  dealt  with.  Eut  not  by  Mr.  Lowe. 
Upon  the  whole,  I  think  we  have  not,  in  the  whole  array 
of  our  public  men,  a  more  ingenuous,  a  more  artless,  any 
more  than  we  have  a  more  logical  or  trenchant,  rcasoner. 
"Whatever  subject  he  touches,  liis  first  object  is,  like  Ajax, 
to  drag  it  into  light :  into  such  a  light  as  Tennyson  would 
call  a  fierce  light.  Those  who  do  not  agree  with  him 
may  say  that  it  is  a  liglit  like  the  lights  of  Eembrandt, 
which  leave  much  of  the  picture  in  deep  shadow ;  but,  if 
w^e  think  so,  it  is  open  to  us  to  do  our  best  to  get  these 
also  under  the  eye  of  day.  And  I  believe  myself  to 
agree  with  Mr.  Lowe  in  a  proposition  which,  as  I  think, 
lies  deeper  tlian  any  of  the  particular  arguments  directly 
bearing  upon  the  question. 

4.  It  is  this  :  that  the  liberties  of  our  fellow- subjects 
form  a  theme  of  too  high  a  nature  to  be  determined  by  the 
interests  of  party.  They  ought  to  be  extended,  irrespec- 
tive of  their  effects  on  party,  to  the  furthest  point  com- 
patible with  the  well-being  of  the  Constitution,  with  the 
established  public  order  under  which  they  live.  They 
are  a  gift  so  good  in  themselves,  so  full  of  educating 
power,  so  apt  to  enhance  and  multiply  the  aggregate  of 
the  nation's  energies,  that  nothing  can  equitably  be  placed 
in  competition  w4th  them,  unless  it  be  the  security  of  that 
public  order.  How  far  this  competition  ever  has  occurred, 
or  is  likely  to  occur,  among  us,  I  will  inquire  by-and-byc. 
For  the  present,  I  only  urge  that  the  principles  of  party 
combination  are  unduly  extended  and  uplifted,  when  they 
are  either  openly  avowed,  or  inwardly  permitted  to  operate, 


134  THE   COrifTT   FRANCHISE, 

as  a  reason  either  for  withholding  liberty,  or  for  endanger- 
ing that  public  order.  Party  is  a  legitimate  and  necessary, 
but  essentially  a  secondary  and  subordinate,  instrument 
for  promoting  the  public  good.  Mr.  Lowe,  with  perfect 
consistency,  compromised  in  1866  the  power  and  position 
of  his  party  on  the  principle  which  he  was  right  in  deem- 
ing higher  than  party  (had  it  been  at  issue);  namely,  that 
the  Constitution  ought  not  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of 
men  unfit  to  work  it.  He  is  justified  in  protesting  against 
every  renewed  indication  from  the  Tories  that  they  mean 
to  repeat  the  manoeuvre,  the  plot,  the  education,  call  it 
what  we  may,  of  1867;  and  in  calling  on  them,  though 
he  might  as  well  call  upon  the  statues  of  the  Vatican,  or 
the  bones  and  vases  disinterred  by  Dr.  Schliemann,  to 
decide  this  question  on  its  merits,  whatever  they  may  be. 
But  he  and  I  must  alike  be  prepared  to  stand  the  recoil  of 
our  own  guns,  even  though  the ' '  kick"  may  be  inconvenient. 
AYe  have  no  right  to  withhold  the  household  franchise 
from  the  counties  on  the  ground  that  the  peasantry  will 
in  the  long-run  follow  the  parson  and  the  squire,  so  as  to 
strengthen  the  hands  of  the  Tory  party ;  and  that  it  is 
better  for  the  country  to  have  a  more  restricted  constitu- 
ency in  the  main  Liberal,  rather  than  a  more  enlarged  one 
in  the  main  Tory.  Against  this  I  set  up  the  proposition 
that  whatever  be  the  eff'ect  on  party,  it  is  better  that  a 
nation  preferring  self-government  should  be  self-governed; 
that  the  basis  should  be  consistent  as  well  as  wide ;  and 
that  privilege  and  franchises  should  not  be  tossed  about 
by  caprice,  but  distributed  with  a  firm  and  an  even  hand. 
5.  Before  18;i2,  the  Parliamentary  Constitution  of  this 
country  was  full  of  flaws  in  theory,  and  blots  in  practice, 
that  would  not  bear  the  light.  But  it  was,  notwith- 
Btanding,  one  of  the  wonders  of  the  world.     Time  was  its 


AND    MR.    LOWE   TnEEEON.  135 

parent ;  Silence  was  its  nurse.  Until  the  American  Revo- 
lution had  been  accomplished  it  stood  alone  (among  all 
great  countries)  in  the  world.  "Whatever  its  defects,  it 
had  imbibed  enough  of  the  free  air  of  heaven  to  keep  the 
lungs  of  liberty  in  play.  Some  of  its  worst  deeds,  such 
as  the  repeal  in  1754  of  the  law  passed  the  year  before  in 
favour  of  the  Jews,*  were  due  not  to  its  excluding,  but  to  its 
admitting,  the  influence  of  popular  opinion.  It  did  much 
evil,  and  it  left  much  good  undone  ;  but  it  either  led,  or 
did  not  lag  behind,  the  national  feeling  and  opinion.  If 
on  any  great  long-enduring  (question  it  was  in  conflict  with 
the  wish  of  the  majority  of  the  nation,  that  question  was 
the  exclusion  of  the  Stuarts  from  the  throne  :  and  who 
shall  say  that  here  the  nation  was  right,  and  the  Pavlia- 
ment  was  wrong  ?  If  the  American  war  and  the  Revo- 
lutionary war  were  great  errors,  they  were  not  less 
pardonable  than  they  were  great ;  and  in  any  case  they 
were  wars  undertaken  in  consonance  with  the  feeling  of 
the  country.  Upon  the  whole,  perhaps,  the  domestic 
policy,  which  for  a  decade  of  years  followed  the  close  of 
the  great  Revolutionary  war,  forms  the  most  discreditable 
chapter  in  its  history  :  but  this  is  only  a  repetition  of  a 
lesson,  that  mankind  is  all  too  dull  and  slow  to  learn ;  the 
lesson,  that  war,  except  it  be  fought  for  liberty,  is  the 
most  deadly  enemy  of  liberty. 

6.  Tlu!  Parliamentary  Constitution  of  our  fathers  was  a 
mosaic ;  like  that  Cabinet,  the  Cabinet  of  Lord  Chatham, 
the  composition  of  which  has  been  embedded,  by  the 
eloquent  description  of  Mr.  Rurke,  in  the  permanent 
literature  of  the  country.  The  forms  and  colours  of  the 
bits  tliat  made  it  up  were  indeed  yet  more  curious.     It 


*  Soe  May,  Const.  Hid.  ii.  266  (third  ed.). 


136  THE    COUXTT   FEANCHISE, 

included  every  variety  of  franchise,  from  pure  nomination 
by  an  individual  down  or  up  to  household  suffrage ;  say 
from  zero  to  what  is  deemed  infinity.  It  gave  to  the 
aristocracy,  and  to  landed  wealth,  the  preponderance,  of 
wliich  the  larger  part  has  now  been  practically  handed 
over  to  wealth  at  large.  Subject  always  to  this  confes- 
sion, it  made  an  admirable  provision  for  diversity  of  ele- 
ments, for  the  representation  of  mind,  for  the  political 
training,  from  youth  upwards,  of  the  most  capable  material 
of  the  country.  In  those  days,  the  idea  of  the  representa- 
tion of  labour  by  members  of  the  labouring  class  had  not 
come  to  the  birth :  if  it  had,  who  shall  say  that  greater 
difficulty  than  now  need  have  been  experienced  in  giving 
it  practical  effect?  Generally,  in  the  special  respects  I 
have  named,  the  old  Parliamentary  Constitution  was, 
I  believe,  intrinsically  more  favourable  to  the  public 
interests  than  our  present  system.  It  might  also  be  held, 
that  expenditure  as  a  whole  was  more  economical,  and 
that  mere  cliques  and  sections  of  the  community  had  not 
means  equal  to  those,  which  they  now  so  assiduously 
employ,  for  pushing  their  own  interests  against  the  in- 
terests of  the  nation.  But  it  is  hard  to  say  what  shai'e 
of  the  mischief  may  be  due  to  the  more  highly  organised 
state  of  society,  the  greater  activity  of  its  forces,  the 
readier  intercommunication  of  its  parts ;  not  to  mention 
the  large  cost  incurred  in  the  recognition  and  supply  of 
real  public  wants,  to  which  formerly  no  heed,  or  no 
effectual  heed,  was  given.  It  may,  however,  well  be 
doubted  whether,  if  Parliament  had  sooner  been  reformed, 
Roman  Catholic  Emancipation  would  have  been  passed  as 
early  as  in  1829;  and  whether,  if  it  had  been  reformed 
later,  the  Com  Laws  might  not,  with  loss  of  strain  and 
effort,  have  been  repealed  before  1846. 


AUD    ME.    LOAVE    inEEEON.  137 

7.  One  of  my  oLjects  in  this  biicf  retrospect  is  to  suggest 
what  pai'ty  prejudice  appears  to  forget,  that  the  true 
character  of  our  working  Parliamentary  system  is  not 
determined  exclusively  by  the  condition  of  the  franchise 
and  what  is  termed  the  distribution  of  scats.  Another  is 
to  make  an  apology  for  those  who  felt  that,  in  surrendering 
the  former  system  as  a  whole,  to  substitute  for  it  the 
scheme  of  1832,  they  were  committing  themselves  to  a 
series  of  changes,  and  not  to  one  alone.  The  convictions 
of  men  like  Mr.  Eurke,  Lord  Grenville,  Mr.  Canning,  ^Ir. 
Ilallam,  in  its  favour,  represent  something  much  higher, 
much  more  historical,  than  has  since  been,  or  could  be, 
arrayed  in  defence  of  schemes,  essentially  intermediate 
and  provisional,  against  further  modification.  Tor  be  it 
remembered,  that  the  old  system  was  not  condemned 
principally  for  its  working  demerits.  With  the  repeal  of 
the  Test  Act  and  tlie  Eoman  Catholic  disabilities,  Avith 
the  initiation  of  Free  Trade  and  the  retrenchment  of  the 
Wc'llington  Government  in  such  fresh  remembrance,  it 
hardly  could  be  so  condemned.  It  was  for  anomaly  and 
inequality  amounting  to  caricature  ;  for  the  representation 
of  the  Peerage  in  a  popular  chamber ;  above  all,  it  was 
upon  the  general  doctrine  of  self-government,  and  for  the 
general  exclusion  of  a  class,  whose  fitness  none  dared  to 
impeach,  from  the  franchise. 

8.  That  class  was  the  middle  class.  But  that  class  does 
not  to  my  knowledge  carry  upon  it,  like  the  Kings  of  the 
heroic  age,  any  exclusive  note  of  divine  descent.  If  it 
had  no  such  note,  and  if  it  was  admitted  for  its  quali- 
fications, tlien  we  must  inquire,  as  occasion  offers,  what 
other  portions  of  the  adult  male  community,  or  whether 
indeed  the  mass  of  that  community,  under  only  the  con- 
ditions of  due  veiification   and  of  order,  has  its  qualifi- 


138  THE    COUNTY    FEANCHISE, 

cations  also.  Here  we  have,  without  doubt,  a  fair  subject 
of  argument.  But  it  will  not  do  to  plead  the  formidable 
aspect  of  a  long  list  of  ciphers,  and  to  say  we  have 
admitted  so  many  that  we  are  tired,  and  really  cannot 
admit  any  more. 

9.  Xor  I  think  will  it  suffice  to  threaten,  as  Mr. 
Lowe  threatens,  us  with  a  tumble  down  the  precipice, 
towards  which  he  says  we  are  rapidly  gliding,  and 
at  the  foot  of  which  we  shall  be  smashed  to  atoms. 
The  argument  has  lost  its  force  by  its  repetition,  like  the 
promises  of  Turkish  reform.  We  have  the  advantage  of 
experience.  We  have  fallen  down  these  precipices,  and 
know  what  it  is.  AVe  fell  down  a  precipice  in  1832,  a 
much  higher  precipice  than  any  now  before  us,  and  were 
greatly  the  better  for  it.  We  fell  down  another  precipice 
in  18G7,  and  we  are,  to  say  the  least,  none  the  worse. 
"Leaping  in  the  dark"  I  do  not  recommend;  but  I  con- 
tend that  there  is  light  enough.  The  middle  class  were 
admitted,  because  they  were  loyal  to  our  institutions, 
sober  and  thoughtful  in  disposition,  having  access  to 
political  information,  reasonably  capable  of  forming  a 
judgment  on  public  affairs,  well  disposed  to  defer  to  the 
o])inion  and  advice  of  those  who  might  be  more  capable 
still.  In  1867  we  determined,  and  in  that  year  and 
1869  we  gave  full  effect  to  the  determination,  that  the 
householders  in  towns  were  so  far  possessed  of  these 
qualities  in  the  aggregate,  that  they  likewise  ought  to 
possess  the  franchise.  And  now  the  question  is  raised 
whether  it  ouglit  not,  on  like  grounds,  to  be  given  to 
householders  in  the  counties.  There  is  not  one  of  them  who, 
if  he  moved  into  a  town  and  dwelt  in  the  meanest  hovel 
there,  would  not  have  what  we  want  to  give  him.  Prima 
facit  they  have  had  a  plea,  at  least  since  the  Act  of  1867. 


AJTD    MR.    LOWE   THERKOIT.  109 

To  get  rid  of  this  plea,  we  must  put  forth  something  in  bar 
of  it.  Some  answer  or  other  must  be  lodged.  What  shall 
the  demurrer  be  ?  Shall  it  be  inferiority  of  qualification  ? 
Shall  it  be  the  essential  difference,  or  the  Constitutional 
distinction,  between  county  and  town  constituencies  ?  Or 
shall  it  be  this :  we  have  made  one  false  stop  already  ;  it 
is  irretrievable ;  but  we  will  not  make  another.  Or  are 
we  to  be  deterred  from  political  liberality  by  mechanical 
difficulties,  and  by  the  assumed  necessity  of  an  increase 
in  the  costliness,  already  so  mischievous,  of  elections  ? 

10.  1  will  endeavour  to  deal  with  these  objections  suc- 
cessively. But  let  me  begin  with  dismissing  very  briefly 
any  objection  founded  on  the  idea  of  essential  distinction 
between  town  and  county  representation.  We  have  too 
many  towns,  both  real  and  considerable,  and  too  large  a 
town  population,  in  the  counties,  and  too  many  little  bits 
of  counties  figuring  under  the  name  of  towns,  to  be 
warranted  in  urging  this  distinction  as  a  bamer  to  a  great 
enfranchisement.  "We  may  still,  if  we  like,  mark  off  our 
county  representation  proper  by  the  present,  or  even  by 
enlarged,  franchises  from  property ;  but  most  men  will 
agree  that  the  argument  upon  county  household-suffrage 
must  be  decided  on  grounds  and  pleas  other  than  this. 

1 1 .  And  first,  as  to  the  great  matter,  that  of  qualification. 
There  is  really,  if  we  carry  the  strict  sense  of  the  word  to 
its  extreme,  no  such  thing.  Xo  man  is  perfectly  qualified 
either  for  judging  or  for  conducting  the  affairs  of  this 
great  empire.  It  is  a  question  of  degree,  who  are  the 
least  disqualified;  and  "qualification"  is  therefore  a 
relative  term.  Now  one  element  of  qualification,  thus 
understood,  is  interest.  This  element  is  found  in  county 
householders,  at  least  as  much  as  in  those  of  the  town  : 
fcr  itinerancy  tends  to   abate  the  full  sense  of  it,  and 


140  THE    COUNTY   FRANCHISE, 

itinerancy  prevails  less  in  counties  than  in  towns.  Another 
is  the  disposition,  the  desire,  to  judge  rightly  and  patrioti- 
cally of  public  questions.  Here  the  greatest  disabling 
causes  are  selfishness  and  passion.  Now,  in  regard  to 
selfishness,  the  more  formidable  of  the  two,  a  long  expe- 
rience impresses  me  with  the  belief  that  this  e\Hl  temper 
docs  not  grow  in  intensity  as  we  move  downwards  in 
society  from  class  to  class.  I  rather  believe  that,  if  a 
distinction  is  to  be  drawn  in  this  respect,  it  must  be 
di-awn  in  favour  of,  and  not  against,  the  classes  (if  such 
they  should  be  called)  which  are  lower,  larger,  less 
opulent,  and,  after  allowing  fully  for  trades  unions,  less 
organised. 

12.  As  to  popular  passion,  its  serious  operation  in  our 
own  time  and  country  is  rare.  "When  it  does  operate 
upon  a  mass  of  men,  a  very  formidable  case  may  conceiv- 
ably arise.  It  is  difficult  to  reason  with  the  passions  of 
an  individual  or  of  a  few ;  with  those  of  a  multitude, 
once  aroused,  it  is  impossible.  But  it  is  also  obvious  that, 
so  far  as  the  passionate  susceptibilities  of  multitudes  of 
men  deserve  to  be  taken  into  account,  the  topic  may 
be  used  far  more  effectively  against  those  whom  we 
have  admitted  than  against  those  whom  we  have  not. 
The  town  populations  dwell  in  masses  closely  wedged 
together,  and  they  habitually  assemble  in  crowds  for 
the  purposes  of  many  of  their  occupations.  It  is  in 
this  state  of  juxtaposition  that  political  electricity  flies 
from  man  to  man  with  a  violence  which  displaces  judg- 
ment from  its  seat,  and  carries  ofE  individual  minds  in  a 
flood  by  the  resistless  rush  of  sympathy.  The  carter,  the 
ploughman;  the  cowherd,  the  great  bulk,  in  fact,  of 
agricultural  labourers,  work  habitually  in  absolute  or 
comparative  dispersion,  and,  with  them,  sober-mindedness 


AND    MR.    LOWE    TilEREOK,  141 

might  more  readily  lapse  into  gloom   and   torpor,  than 
mount  into  dangerous  excitement. 

13.  As  to  mental  training,  indeed,  and  intellectual  com- 
petency, the  case  is  somewhat  dill'erent.  Yet  even  here 
one  of  the  great  advantages  of  a  wide  suffrage  comes  into 
view.  It  is,  that  every  section  of  the  community  knoAvs 
something,  and  something  material  to  the  general  weal, 
wliich  the  other  sections  do  not  know.  Every  section 
can  thus  make  a  contribution  to  the  common  stock  which, 
without  its  intervention,  must  be  wanting.  There  are 
some  questions  on  which  a  lower  class  not  only  may, 
but  must  be,  better  qualified  to  judge  than  a  higher 
one.  With  respect  to  intellectual,  not  moral,  competency 
generally,  I  admit  that  it  is  leisure,  training,  and  culture 
which  give  not  only  the  broadest  and  firmest,  but  the 
most  elastic  capacity  for  the  treatment  of  public  questions. 
"Were  we  beings  of  pure  intellect,  or  were  the  operations 
of  the  understanding  unaffected  by  interest  and  "  partial 
affection,"  the  argument  would  be  very  strong  for  some- 
thing like  the  Russian  Government:  for  giving  a  monopoly 
of  ])olitical  power  to  the  most  highly  educated  persons. 
And  I  own  it  appears  to  me  that  this  is  the  legitimate 
upshot  of  many  of  the  arguments  used  in  1866,  and  again 
at  this  time,  against  the  enlargement  of  the  suffrage.  The 
answer  is,  that  no  single  portion  of  the  community  is  fit 
to  be  trusted  with  absolute  power;  and  that  those  portions 
of  it  which  have  less  of  leisure,  of  intellectual  training, 
and  of  general  capacity  for  affairs,  may  notwithstanding 
make  up  for  the  deficiency  by  a  disposition  practically  to 
admit  its  existence,  and  to  lean,  freely  and  confidingly,  on 
the  judgments  of  those  who  have  superior  o})portunities, 
and  have  also,  or  are  supposed  to  have,  superior  fitness  of 
all  kinds.     Independence,  of  which  I  have  yet  to  speak, 


142  THE   COUNTY   FKAKCHISE, 

and  which  is  justly  reckoned  among  the  valuable  qualifi- 
cations of  an  elector,  is  the  countei'poise  to  this  (so  to  call 
it)  adjective  tendency;  but  the  two  are  not,  except  in 
their  abuse,  contradictory  one  to  the  other. 

14.  At  this  point  let  us  suspend  for  a  moment  the  process 
of  handling  this  and  that  particular  argument ;  and  let  us 
look  at  the  question  a  little  more  at  large  according  to 
political  justice :  that  is  to  say,  accortling  to  common 
sense,  applied  to  the  particular  province  in  which  lie  such 
questions  of  right  and  wrong  as  arise  out  of  the  relations 
of  political  society.  For  the  present,  I  shall  so  far  pro- 
ceed upon  a  petitio  principii  as  to  assume  (1)  that  we 
are  considering  the  case  of  adult  males,  neither  disquali- 
fied by  mental  infirmity,  nor  deprived  of  liberty  on 
account  of  crime,  nor  loading  the  community  with  the 
cost  of  their  subsistence  ;  (2)  that  in  questions  of  political 
fitness  we  have  to  deal  with  this  or  that  section  in  the 
mass,  and  not  with  the  eccentric  and  exceptional  cases  of 
individuals  ;  (3)  that  in  practice  the  question  before  us  is 
simply  that  of  household  suffrage  in  the  counties. 

15.  There  is  something  so  shocking  to  the  nerves  in  the 
idea  of  anything  like  universal  suff'rage,  especially  if  com- 
bined with  equal  electoral  districts,  that,  in  the  ears  of 
many,  it  sounds  like  universal  murder.  Not  even  in  the 
white  heat  of  his  alarm  does  Mr.  Lowe  believe  that  we 
are  as  yet  sufficiently  depraved  to  entertain  it.  "That  will 
come  in  its  own  sweet  time  .  .  .  but  not  just  yot.""^' 
Let  us  look  a  little  more  closely  into  the  face  of  this 
monster,  and  tiy  to  scan  its  features.  What  does  the 
thing  mean  ?  It  means  that  adult  males,  subjects  of  Her 
Majesty,  not  specially  disabled,  and  duly  identified  by 


FurtnigJdly  Review,  Oct.  1876,  p.  445. 


AND    MR.    LOWE    THEREON.  113 

public  authority  as  to  place  and  particulars,  should  have 
the  power  of  exercising  by  a  vote  an  influence  on  tlie 
government  of  the  country. 

Now  about  rights  I  will  not  argue  :  for  the  very  intro- 
duction of  the  word  is  apt  to  have  a  maddening  efl'ect ; 
and  many,  who  will  teach  and  preach  to  the  uttermost, 
and  without  the  smallest  qualification,  the  right  of  pro- 
perty, as  if  it  were  the  Eleventh  commandment,  seem  to 
forget  that,  apart  from  degree,  it  is  in  kind  the  same  as 
the  right  of  franchise — that  is  to  say,  it  is  good  for 
the  community,  and  its  limits  and  conditions  are  to  be 
decided  by  the  community,  through  its  proper  organs. 
Let  us  theu  reason  upon  another  line,  that  of  qualilication. 
There  are  some  reasons  why  it  is  well  that  each  man 
should  have  such  a  power  as  the  vote  confers.  First,  by 
his  rates,  his  taxes,  or  his  use  of  consumable  articles,  he 
is  a  contributor  to  the  public  revenue.  Secondly,  by  his 
labour  (we  are  not  now  dealing  with  the  owner  of  capital) 
he  is  a  contributor  to  the  public  wealth.  Thirdly,  in 
more  than  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  he  has  given  pledges  to 
society  by  constituting  himself  the  head  of  a  family,  in 
which  is  lodged  a  large  part  of  his  aftections.  Fourthly, 
as  he  is  possessed  of  the  means  of  making  himself  useful, 
so  also  he  is  largely  possessed  of  the  means  of  making 
himself,  as  pauper,  vagabond,  criminal,  or  otherwise, 
mischievous  and  burdensome  to  the  nation.  Xow  it  is  to 
be  desired  that  all  those  who  live  in  a  country  should 
take  an  interest  in  that  country  :  should  love  that  country. 
One  of  the  means  of  fostering  such  an  interest  and  such  ;i 
love  is  to  invest  them  with  a  share  in  affairs  common  to 
others  with  themselves.  On  this  principle,  from  the 
earliest  times,  our  local  and  parochial  govenimcnts  have 
been  constructed.     It  does  not  at  first  sight  appear  why 


1  14  TITE    COTJNTr   FRANCHISE, 

its  operation  should  stop  here  :  Tvhy  it  may  not  be  ex- 
tended ^vith  advantage  to  the  general  government  of  the 
country,  with  its  larger  perspective,  its  more  elevating 
and  ennobling  topics.  Presumptively,  it  will  be  good  for 
him,  and  for  it,  that  he  should  be  led  by  the  vote  to  take 
an  interest,  to  feel  that  he  has  a  share,  in  its  affairs.  lie 
will  love  it  all  the  better ;  he  will  serve  it  all  the  more 
faithfully. 

16.  But  then  we  are  fairly  met  by  the  observation,  that 
while  the  numerical  force  of  votes  is  equal,  the  men  who 
give  them  are  unequal.  The  right  of  governing,  says 
^rr.  Burke,  lies  in  wisdom  and  virtue.  The  extremes  of 
difference  in  capacity,  according  to  these,  qualifications, 
are  separated  almost  immeasurably.  While  it  is  easy  to 
maintain  that  each  man  may  with  advantage  have  some 
share  of  political  power,  it  is  unreasonable,  nay  absurd  as 
I  think,  to  hold  in  the  abstract  that  all  ought  to  have  an 
equal  share.  Presumptively,  again,  the  shares  ought  to 
vary  with  the  intellectual  and  moral  fitness.  But  no 
scale  has  ever  been  discovered  by  which  such  an  adjust- 
ment could  be  effected.  So  far,  then,  as  abstract  reason- 
in"-  is  concerned,  we  seem  to  have  arrived  at  that  awkward 
predicament,  a  reductio  ad  ahsurdum  :  if  we  cannot  give 
that  which  men  ought  to  have,  without  also  giving  that 
which  they  ought  not.     But  let  us  not  despair. 

17.  In  the  first  place,  the  argument  of  unequal  capacity 
does  not  tell  so  uniformly  against  the  more  numerous 
classes  of  the  community  as  might  be  supposed.  Whether 
from  moral  causes,  or  for  whatever  other  reason,  the 
popular  judgment,  on  a  certain  number  of  important 
questions,  is  more  just  than  that  of  the  higher  order. 
And,  thus  far,  they  are  not  more  incapable,  but  more 
capable.     In  the  second  place,  our  laws  attempt  to  vindi- 


AND    MR.    LOWi:    THEREON.  145 

cato  the  authority  of  mind,  as  a  political  element,  by 
giving  a  certain  number  of  scats  in  Parliament  to  our 
Universities ;  with  some  evil,  and  some  good,  results.  In 
the  third  place,  the  rude  and  unsatisfactory,  but  yet 
practically  available,  criterion  of  property  has  assigned  to 
it  a  considerable  sphere  of  direct  operation,  through 
plurality  of  franchises,  arranged  under  rules  to  which  the 
country  is  accustomed,  and  which  no  one  wishes  to  dis- 
turb. Hence,  while  we  very  rarely  find  a  labourer  who 
has  more  than  one  vote,  it  is  almost  as  rare  to  find  a  man 
of  property  who  has  not,  in  different  capacities  and  con- 
stituencies, two,  three,  or  moi-e,  even  up  to  six,  or  eight, 
or  ten.  Besides  this,  propeity  has  a  sphere  of  indirect 
operation  larger  still ;  within  which,  sometimes  by  undue 
means,  but  sometimes  also  without  any  such  taint,  it 
exercises  a  very  widely  spread  iulluence. 

18.  From  these  sources  we  draw  some  rather  important 
limitations  to  the  two  propositions  on  which  an  adversary 
would  be  disposed  to  take  his  stand ;  and  which  are  : — 

(1.)  That  the  higher,  or  leisured  class,  is  the  class  which 
ought  to  govern. 

(2.)  In  the  words  of  Mr.  Lowe,*  "  that  while  you  are 
di'eaming  of  equality  you  are  creating  the  gTossest  in- 
equality, by  placing  the  minority,  in  which  are  included 
the  rich  and  the  educated,  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  live 
by  daily  labour." 

But  this  inequality,  this  numerical  superiority  of  those 
nearest  the  ground,  is  inherent  in  all  representative 
government.  Let  society  be  a  cone,  or  a  pyramid ;  it  is 
always  so  constituted  that,  as  we  descend  from  the  ap(^x 
to  the  base,  the  numbers  of  each  successive  layer  down- 


*  F.  R.  ibid.  p.  449. 
I. 


146  THE    C017XTY    FKAXCmSE, 

wards  always  exceed  the  numbers  of  all  the  layers  above 
it.  It  is  not  like  an  arithmetical  progression,  1,  2,  3,  4  ; 
but  more  like  a  geometrical  progression,  1,  2,  4,  8,  and  so 
on  in  each  series  respectively.  The  gentry,  landed  and 
commercial,  are  more  numerous  than  the  aristocracy:  the 
farmers  and  tradesmen  are  more  numerous  than  the  aris- 
tocracy, plus  the  gentry :  the  artisans  are  more  numerous 
than  the  aristocracy,  plus  the  gentry,  plus  the  farmers 
and  tradesmen.  If  the  objection  drawn  from  the  pre- 
ponderance of  numbers  in  the  lowest  enfranchised  class 
is  good  for  anything,  it  is  fatal  to  every  true  repre- 
sentative government  in  the  world.  But  it  is  confuted 
by  the  facts.  Our  knights  and  burgesses  did  not  eat  up 
our  earls  and  barons.  Our  middle  class  did  not  eat  up 
the  gentry  and  aristocracy.  The  artisans  have  not  eaten 
up  the  three. 

19.  In  oi'der  to  entitle  it  to  weight,  the  objection  ought 
to  include  proof,  not  only  of  severance  of  interest,  but 
likewise  of  an  intention  or  disposition  to  act  upon  the 
particular  and  separate  interest  against  the  general  in- 
terests of  the  whole.  But  this  vicious  selfishness,  this 
jjarticularismus,  as  the  Germans  would  call  it,  although 
it  exists  abxxndantly  in  many  small  knots  and  sections 
of  the  community,  is  not  found  to  an  appreciable 
extent  in  any  of  its  great,  and  so  to  speak  natural,  or 
organic,  divisions.  Our  last  great  experiment  has  now 
been  at  work  for  a  decade  of  years :  one  Parliament  has 
lived  and  died,  another  has  been  born  and  is  growing  old  ; 
and  not  a  single  act  of  injustice  has  either  of  them 
perpetrated  in  the  interest  of  the  labouring  class.  We 
need  not  stop  to  ask  what  would  have  been  said  if  they 
had  inflicted  on  the  uppermost  portions  of  society  one 
half  of  such  an  injustice  as  was  inllicted  on  the  lower  by 


AND    Mr..    LOWE    TIIKKEOIT.  147 

the  Act  of  1814.*  "With  •\vliat  other  acts  of  injustice 
either  of  them  may  bo  chargeable  is  another  matter  ;  but 
in  the  interests  of  the  labouring  class,  they  are  chargeable 
with  none.  Is  it  not  idle  tlien,  and  more  than  idle,  if  we 
set  up  an  imaginary  disposition  as  the  demonstration  of 
an  imaginary  danger,  and  flourish  those  idols  in  the  face 
of  the  country  as  though  they  were  solid  arguments 
against  a  proposal,  which  does  not  even  raise  the  shadow 
of  a  Constitutional  question,  but  aims  only  at  giving  to 
the  second  moiety  of  our  liouseholding  labourers  what  we 
have  already  given  to  the  liist? 

20.  Mr.  Lowe  thinks  that  the  arguments  of  those  favour- 
aide  to  household  suffi'age  in  the  coi;nties  are  "simply  and 
solely  an  appeal  to  the  love  of  equality."  The  word  has 
here  an  ambiguity,  which  I  must  endeavour  to  unravel. 
It  is  not  well  to  distribute  the  franchise  on  the  principles 
of  a  lotteiy,  or  arbitrarily  to  withhold  from  one  member 
of  a  class  what  is  given  to  another,  on  no  principle  more 
intelligible  to  his  mind  than  that  of  an  invisible  local  line, 
which  is  not  drawn  according  to  employment,  education, 
character,  means,  or  any  other  intelligible  distinction. 
It  is  well,  for  example,  that  the  peasant  of  "Wilton  and 
the  peasant  of  Milts,  the  peasant  of  Wallingford  and  the 
peasant  of  Berks,  the  peasant  of  Bassetlaw  and  the  peasant 
of  Notts,  should  be  treated  alike  in  respect  to  the  fran- 
chise. The  same  holds  with  respect  to  the  artisan,  the 
miner,  the   mill-and-forge  man  of  JStourbridge,  compared 


*  Is  not  Mr.  Lowe  a  little  hard  on  the  universal  suffrage  of  France, 
whiMi  ho  charges  on  it  a  jjrotective  tariff,  seeing  that  the  no-sull'rage  of 
Kussia  has  one  tenfuM  more  jirotective  ;  and  also  the  prohibitiuu  of  free 
speech  and  free  writing,  when  it  is  engaged  in  a  great  national  struggle 
against  the  enemies  of  its  law  of  universal  surt'rage  who  uphold  that  jiro- 
hibitioa,  and  enforce  it  by  fine  and  imprisonment?    (^F.I,\  ibid.  p.  147.) 

L    2 


H8  THE   COUNTY   FKANCHISE, 

with  his  compeer  in  Dudley  ;  and  so  elsewhere.  That  ia 
to  say,  distinctions  should  be  intelligible  and  not  fantastic. 
In  this  sense,  the  arguments  for  the  extension  have  some- 
thing to  do  with  equality.  But  that  is  not  the  equality 
dreaded  by  its  opponents.  The  equality  dreaded'  by  its 
opponents  is  the  broad  political  theorem,  that  all  men  are 
born  equal,  and  ought  to  continue  so. 

21.  With  this  bastard  political  theorem,  the  arguments 
for  the  extension  have  not  anything  to  do.  If  they  had, 
they  would  not  take  that  strong  hold  on  the  English 
mind  which  now  excites  Mr.  Lowe's  alarms.  There  is 
no  broad  political  idea  which  has  entered  less  into  the 
formation  of  the  political  system  of  this  country  than  the 
love  of  equality.  The  love  of  justice,  as  distinguished 
from  equality,  is  strong  among  our  countrymen  ;  the  love 
of  equality,  as  distinguished  from  justice,  is  very  weak. 
It  was  not  the  love  of  equality  which  induced  the 
working  men  of  England  to  struggle  with  all  their  might 
in  1831-2  for  a  Reform  Act,  which  not  only,  as  they 
knew  full  well,  did  not  confer  the  vote  upon  their  class 
at  large,  but  which  provided  for  the  extinction  of  the 
truly  popular  franchises  theretofore  existing  in  Preston, 
in  Newark,  and  in  many  other  places.  It  was  not  the 
love  of  equality  which  induced  the  artisans  and  peasants  in 
the  counties  to  view  with  satisfaction  the  passing  of  a  law 
in  1867  that  denied  to  them  what  is  given  to  the  artisans 
and  peasants  (of  whom  by-and-bye)  in  the  boroughs.  It 
is  not  the  love  of  equality  which  has  carried  into  eveiy 
corner  of  the  country  the  distinct  undeniable  popular 
preference,  whenever  other  things  are  substantially  equal, 
for  a  man  who  is  a  lord  over  a  man  who  is  not. 

22.   In   truth,   the   love    of  freedom    itself   is   hardly 
etionger  in  England  than  the  love  of  aristocracy;  as  Sir 


AND    MR.    LOWK    TnEREON.  119 

"William  Molcsworth,  himself  not  the  least  of  our  political 
philosophers,  once  said  to  me  of  the  force  of  this  feeling 
■with  the  people  ;  "  it  is  a  religion."  It  is  not  the  love  of 
equality  which  lifts  to  the  level  of  a  popular  toast  at  every 
average  or  promiscuous  puhlic  dinner  the  name  of  the 
House  of  Lords.  And  this,  although  the  stereotyped  reply 
to  the  toast  will  never  be  found  to  allege,  that  from  the 
House  of  Lords,  as  from  the  highest  focus  of  political  in- 
telligence, have  proceeded  the  whole,  or  a  large  part,  or 
any  part  whatever,  of  the  great  legislative  measures  which 
have  conferred  renown  upon  the  age.  The  speaker,  who 
"responds,"  is  commonly  content  to  urge  that  the  House 
of  Lords  has  not  (since  1832)  pushed  its  resistance  to 
these  measures  up  to  such  a  point  as  to  endanger  the 
peace  of  the  country.  The  great  strength  of  the  House 
of  Lords  in  popular  estimation  docs  not,  so  far  as  I  can 
judge,  lie  in  its  legislative  performances,  nor  even  in  the 
vast  possessions  of  its  members  ;  but  in  the  admirable 
manner  in  which  a  large  proportion  of  them,  without 
distinction  of  politics,  perform  public  and  social  duties  in 
their  local,  yet  scarcely  private,  spheres.  And  it  is  the 
love,  not  of  eqiiality,  but  of  inequality,  among  the 
people,  which  makes  these  noblemen  almost  kings  in 
their  minor  yet  far  from  narrow  circles,  and  pennits  their 
fellow-countrymen  to  contemplate,  for  the  most  part  with- 
out the  slightest  admixture  of  envy,  their  favoured  lot. 

23.  I  am  sorry  that  Mr.  Lowe's  penetrating,  almost 
piercing,  power  of  view  has  not  faithfully  exhibited  to 
him  so  great  and  capital  a  feature  in  the  character  of 
his  countrymen.  Not  only  is  it  a  thing  desirable  for 
a  political  observer  to  take  this  property  of  the  British 
character  into  view,  but  it  is  absolutely  indispensable  ;  and 
without  it  our  history  must  be  to  him  a  series  of  riddles, 


150  THE    COrSTTT   FRANCHISE, 

to  which  there  is  no  key.  Call  this  love  of  inequality  by 
"what  name  you  please,  the  complement  of  the  love  of 
freedom,  or  its  negative  pole,  or  the  shadow  which  the 
love  of  freedom  casts,  or  the  reverberation  of  its  voice 
in  the  halls  of  the  constitution  ;  it  is  an  acting,  living, 
and  life-giving  power,  which  forms  an  inseparable  essen- 
tial element  in  our  political  habits  of  mind,  and  asserts 
itself  at  every  step  in  the  processes  of  our  system. 

24.  Hence  it  is  that  the  Eeform  Act  of  1832  proved  to 
be  a  safe  and  even  a  strengthening  measure.  That  perilous 
rocking  of  our  institutions,  which  attended  several  stages 
of  its  progress,  was  due,  not  to  the  Bill,  but  to  the  resist- 
ance offered  to  the  Bill.  Had  the  middle  classes  of  this 
country  generally  acceded  to  the  possession  of  power  in 
that  spirit  of  ignorance  or  class  selfishness  which  treats 
all  that  is  outside,  and  especially  all  that  is  above,  itself, 
as  its  natural  enemy,  the  ruin  of  our  institutions  must  of 
course  have  followed  the  passing  of  the  Act.  This  middle 
class,  in  the  then  subsisting  state  of  the  representation, 
constituted  undoubtedly  a  great  majority  as  compared 
•with  the  higher  class,  who  were  upon  the  whole  the 
previous  possessors  of  power.  Why  did  not  this  majority 
combine  to  assert  itself  against,  and  to  trample  down  the 
minority,  whom  it  had  displaced,  so  far  as  mere  numbers 
were  concerned,  from  the  control  of  the  helm  of  State  ?  I 
think  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  was  the  first  to  point  out,  in 
one  of  our  periodicals,*  that  the  great  access  of  power  and 
impetiis  of  movement  which  the  Reform  Act  gave  to  the 
Liberal  party  was  due  not  so  much  to  the  provisions  of 
the  Bill  themselves  as  to  the  energetic  mood  into  which 
the  nation  had  been  elevated  by  the  obstinate  and  long* 


•  F.  R.  ibid.  p.  449. 


AND    MR.    LOWE    TUEKEON.  151 

continued  struggle  to  secure  them.  There  Tvas  ahso  the 
odium  which  necessarily  attached  to  the  champious  of 
resistance ;  for  their  seeming  attitude,  though  not  by  any 
means  their  uniform  frame  of  mind,  was  that  cither  of  a 
tyrannical  selfishness,  or  of  an  unmanly  superstition. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  all  this,  and  in  spite  of  the  splendid 
services  of  the  administration  of  Lord  Grey  in  1833  and 
1834,  that  Government  had  become,  at  the  close  of  the 
second  session  of  the  Reformed  Parliament,  weak  in  the 
country,  sickly  and  to  all  appearance  near  its  end ;  until 
the  ill-judged  assertion  of  mere  prerogative  by  King 
William  the  Fourth,  in  November  of  the  last-named  year, 
neutralised  the  natui'al  operation  of  Parliamentary  decay, 
compelled  the  nation  to  stand  upon  its  defence,  and  con- 
veyed to  the  Liberal  party,  by  a  strong  reaction,  the  access 
of  health  and  \igorous  organisation  which  took  effect  in 
a  leng-thened  course  of  generous  and  far-reaching  legisla- 
tion. 

25.  We  then  obtained  from  practical  experience  a  lesson 
which  ought  to  have  been  sufficis-nt  for  all  following 
times.  The  argument  indeed  is  plausible,  and  until  it 
had  been  exploded  by  a  living  confutation  it  was  perhaps 
something  more  that  the  admission  to  the  franchise,  by  a 
single  stroke,  of  a  mass  numerically  sufficient  to  overbear 
the  whole  previously  existing  constituency,  and  thus 
violently  to  dci-ange  the  balance  of  political  forces,  could 
not  but  be  a  perilous  and  rash  experiment.  But  the 
Keform  Act  showed  that  we  might  securely  discard  the 
mere  simulacra  of  representation ;  that  the  Government, 
which  had  been  over  and  for  the  nation,  might  safely  be 
of  and  by  the  nation  ;  that  the  newly  enfranchised  classes 
had  greatly  invigorated  the  action  of  the  system ;  that 
they  had  modified  it  for  good,  but  that  they  eschewed  the 


152  THE    COUI^TY    FEAJfCniSE, 

career  of  the  upstart,  and  desired,  upon  the  Avhole,  to  act 
in  the  spirit  of  the  olden  time.  Years  passed  on.  Educa- 
tion spread.  The  new  commercial  legislation,  conferring 
the  double  boon  of  a  free  supply  of  food  and  a  free  vent 
for  the  products  of  industry,  paralysed  the  sinews  of 
Chartism,  and  won  the  heart  and  confidence  of  the  people  ; 
which  had  undoubtedly,  by  many  acts  of  strangely  blind 
and  ungenerous  internal  government,  been  forced  out  of 
the  line  of  their  natural,  congenial  loyalty  and  trustful- 
ness into  disaffection  or  suspicion.  There  came  soon  a 
testing  day.  The  Revolutions  of  1830  on  the  continent 
of  Europe  had  put  into  uneasy  motion  a  great  force  of  dis- 
integrating elements  among  ourselves.  Thus  it  was  before 
the  Reform  Act:  but  how  after  it?  In  1848  there 
arrived  a  new  batch  of  Revolutions,  more  wide  and  more 
searching.  It  was  given  out  in  that  year  that  on  the 
10th  of  April  issue  would  be  taken  between  the  loyal, 
peaceful  inhabitants  of  London  and  the  enemies  of  order. 
A  vast  organisation  was  prepared  for  defence.  But  when 
the  day  arrived,  it  appeared  that  order  had  no  enemies ; 
not  one  single  staff  was  tried  upon  one  single  head,  nor 
one  charge  even  of  blank  cartridge  fired.  The  people, 
high  and  low,  were  all  on  one  side.  The  expeiiment  of 
reform  had  thus  converted  repulsion  into  attraction,  mijius 
forces  into  plus  ;  and  had  immensely  added  to  the  power 
of  government,  and  the  aggregate  disposable  forces  of  the 
nation,  by  amalgamating  the  hearts  of  men. 

26.  And  yet  when,  a  few  years  later,  it  was  timidly  and 
with  bated  breath  proposed  to  repeat  a  process  which  had 
proved  so  richly  beneficial,  and  to  deal  with  the  artisans 
as  we  had  dealt  with  the  middle  class,  the  old  terrors,  the 
old  bugbears,  were  at  once  put  in  requisition,  and  surely 
with  far  less  apology  than  before.     It  was  not  now  a 


AND    MK.    LOWE    TnEKEOy.  153 

question  of  departing  from  a  time-grown  and  time- 
honoured  system,  which  had  wound  itself  (so  to  speak) 
into  the  national  life,  and  with  respect  to  which  no  man, 
within  the  six  hundred  years  of  our  representative  history, 
could  point  to  the  period  when  it  had  not  been.  It  was 
not  now  a  question  of  tempting  the  unknown  :  except, 
indeed,  as  a  man  who  had  broken  a  horse  yesterday 
tempts  the  unknown  when  he  begins  to  break  another 
liorse  to-day.  It  was  still  held  either  that  a  people  is 
always  politically  drunk  or  mad,  or  at  the  least  that  the 
gift  of  the  franchise  must  make  them  so.  Any  reference 
to  the  manner  in  which  these  predictions  had  been  made 
and  falsified  in  the  case  of  the  ten-pound  constituency 
was  met  by  a  kind  of  deification  of  the  middle  class,  the 
class  in  the  golden  mean  of  the  philosopher ;  the  class  that 
had  made  and  gained  the  petition  "  Give  me  neither 
poverty  nor  riches  "  ;  the  class  whose  composition  was  so 
saturated  with  ^drtue  and  intelligence  as  to  neutralise  the 
poisons  that  lay  hidden  in  the  gift  of  political  enfranchise- 
ment. Below  them,  nothing  but  an  abyss  of  darkness  and 
di'unkcmness,  with  trades  unions  dimly  moving  in  the  midst ; 
whicli  were  certain  to  organise  an  overwhelming  multi- 
tude in  the  name  of  Labour,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
a  new  despotism  of  the  many  over  the  few. 

27.  Such  were  the  ungainly  pleas  current  in  1866. 
And  these  objections,  for  their  appointed  time,  did  their 
appointed  mischief.  But,  after  a  year  or  two  of  the  nation's 
life  had  been  spent  in  a  conflict  that  shoidd  never  have  been 
waged,  we  went  down  the  "precipice,"  and  landed  at  the 
foot.  Two  Parliaments  of  very  different  complexions, 
merits,  and  performances  have  been  returned  under  the 
influence  of  the  constituency  furnished  by  the  household 
suffrage;  both  of  them  have  shown,   in  their  respective 


154  THE    COUNTY    FEANCHISE, 

ways,  an  attention  to  the  interests  of  labour  which  was 
greatly  needed,  and  more  than  amply  justified;  but 
neither  of  them  has  supplied  so  much  as  a  shadow  of  a 
shade  of  warrant  for  the  charge,  that  the  working  men 
would  combine  together,  iu  the  interests  of  their  own 
class,  to  wage  war  upon  other  classes.  The  marvel  is, 
that  they  have  been  either  unable  or  unwilling  to  combine 
even  to  the  moderate  and  reasonable  extent  which  would 
have  sufficed  to  place  half  a  dozen  or  a  dozen  of  them- 
selves iu  the  popular  chamber,  and  thereby  usefully  to 
enlarge  its  means  of  acquaintance  with  the  ideas,  wants, 
and  tendencies  of  the  people. 

28.  Thus  we  have  now  had  a  second  trial  of  the  great 
experiment,  with  a  result  substantially  identical :  a  result 
which  demonstrates  that  the  working  class,  like  the  middle 
class,  are  in  the  best  sense  Conservative  ;  that  the  working 
class,  like  the  middle  class,  are  lovers,  not  of  equality, 
but  of  inequality  ;  that  they  wish  to  be  enrolled  upon 
the  lists  of  the  Constitution,  not  as  men  enter  a  hostile 
fortress  to  destroy  it,  but  as  they  enrol  themselves  in  a 
corps  of  volunteers,  to  strengthen  and  augment  it. 

29.  It  is  this  great  safeguard,  the  love  of  inequality, 
which  has  made  safe  the  changes  past,  and  which  wiU 
make  safe  the  changes  yet  to  come ;  which  will  augment  the 
quantity  of  strength  avaihible  for  all  our  public  and  national 
ends,  and  will  not  deteriorate  its  quality.  Do  not  then  let 
it  be  with  us  in  this  matter  as  it  was  in  the  course  of  the 
free-trade  legislation,  when  each  successive  "interest," 
as  it  was  handled,  and  as  its  predictions,  always  plausible, 
were  met  by  pointing  to  the  proved  futility  of  similar 
anticipations  in  all  former  cases,  protested  that  there  were 
specialities  affecting  just  that  one  only  calling  in  par- 
ticular which  would  make  freedom,  beneficial  as  it  had 


AND    MR.    LOWE    THKREON.  155 

proved  to  others,  ruinous  to  it.  I  believe  I  have  myself 
listened,  hisce  aun'bus,  to  the  dirges  of  at  least  fifty  trades, 
chanted  beforehand  on  their  own  coming  death,  all  of 
■which  are  now  not  only  alive,  but  more  vigorous  and 
more  extended  by  far,  than  they  were  before  their  immo- 
lation. This  is  not  altogether  creditable.  But  there  is 
Bome  excuse  for  men  whose  very  means  of  livelihood 
"were  about  to  be  subjected  to  a  novel  manipulation,  if 
the  balance  of  their  judgments  were  for  the  time  dis- 
turbed. Surely  the  statesman  sits  ujjon  a  higher  emin- 
ence, and  ought  to  obtain  a  broader  view.  Now  let  us 
see  what  has  happened.  First,  at  the  time  of  the  old 
Refoim  Act,  although  the  popular  constituencies  pre- 
viously existing  had  not  exhibited  revolutionary  tenden- 
cies, it  was  contended  that  the  middle  class  would  be 
unsafe  depositaries  of  power.  Next,  when  the  middle 
class  had  by  their  moderation  aud  patriotism  redeemed 
themselves  from  this  imputation,  and  it  was  proposed  in 
1866  to  admit  the  artisans  of  our  towns  to  the  franchise, 
it  was  held  that  the  middle  class  had  indeed  proved  to  be 
paragons  of  political  virtue,  but  the  artisan  was  a  peri- 
lous creature,  and  could  not  be  trusted.  However,  he 
has  been  admitted,  and  with  him  a  class  below  him  in 
the  towns,  among  whom,  if  anywhere,  the  elements  of 
unfitness  were  to  be  suspected.  The  constituencies,  in 
which  these  classes  form  a  majority,  have  returned  to 
Parliament  a  Tory  majority,  which,  except  upon  one  very 
peculiar  occasion,  the  middle  class  constituency  never 
gave.  Is  it  now  to  be  held  that,  though  the  artisans  and 
labourers  of  the  towns  may  be  trusted,  there  is  an  impure 
influence,  a  kind  of  political  stench,  in  the  atmosphere 
beyond  the  limits  of  Parliamentary  boroughs,  which  is 
fatal  to  intellectual  and  moral  health,  and  that  the  county 


156  THE    COUNTY    FRANCHISE, 

householder  will  destroy  the  Constitution  which  the  town 
householder  has  so  vigorously  upheld  ? 

30.  There  was  certainly  a  time  when  it  might  have 
been  urged  with  plausibility,  if  not  with  reason,  that  the 
rural  voter  had  not  the  independence  which  is  an  essential 
condition  for  the  beneficial  exercise  of  the  franchise. 
"When  the  traditions  of  the  old  Poor  Law  had  not  yet  been 
effaced ;  when,  under  the  law  of  settlement,  the  peasant 
was  virtually  all  but  an  astrictus  glehce ;  when  highly 
skilled  labour  had  not  had  its  new  impulse  and  develop- 
ment from  agricultural  improvements  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  machinery ;  when  there  was  a  press  for  the  palace, 
the  mansion,  and  even  the  counting-house,  but  none  for 
the  farm,  for  the  shop,  or  for  the  cottage  ;  when  tlie 
school  was  a  rare  experiment,  instead  of  an  invariable 
feature  of  every  parish  and  locality,  on  a  scale  measured 
with  something  like  precision  by  the  wants  of  the  popu- 
lation ;  when  the  rate  of  wages  in  very  many  countries 
did  not  suffice  for  health  or  decency,  to  say  nothing  of 
comfort,  rest,  or  recreation ;  then  the  argument  had  a 
Aveight  which  it  has  now  wholly  lost,  even  indejiendently 
of  the  glaring  fact,  that  our  rural  householders  grow 
steadily  from  year  to  year  less  rural,  and  include  from  year 
to  year  a  larger  fraction  of  population  essentially  urban. 

31.  Mr.  Lowe  is,  however,  together  with  many  more, 
apprehensive  that  the  admission  of  the  peasantry  to  the 
vote  will  strengthen  the  Conservative  party.  If  this  be 
so,  I  am  sorry ;  but  I  cannot  help  it.  I  cannot  hold  that 
self-government  is  for  Liberals,  and  political  nonentity 
for  Tories.  If  the  rural  voters  lean  too  much  to  the  Tory 
party,  tlieir  admission  to  a  share  in  the  self-government 
of  the  nation  will  be  the  very  thing  most  likely  to  correct 
what  is  undue  in  that  leaning.     Were  they  indeed  to  be 


AND    MIt.    LOWE    THEREON.  157 

Bubjoct  to  intimiclation,  were  thoy  liable  to  the  substitu- 
tion by  an  extraneous  agency  of  another  man's  judgment 
for  their  own,  the  case  would  be  diftercnt ;  but  if,  out  of 
their  respect  for  the  clergyman,  the  landlord,  and  the 
farmer,  the  peasant  chooses  to  take  the  advice  of  any  of 
the  three  in  the  disposal  of  his  vote,  the  principles  of 
Liberalism  bind  me  to  respect  that  respect.  I  must  take 
my  chance.  But  the  chance  is  not  all  one  way.  We, 
the  Liberals,  are  apt  to  say  that  the  influence  of  money, 
working  through  the  public-house,  is  a  considerable  ele- 
ment in  the  strength  of  urban  Toryism  :  it  is  less  likely 
so  to  operate  among  the  more  dispersed  constituencies  of 
the  country.  The  longer  the  Tory  party  withhold  the 
franchise  de  facto,  whatever  be  the  grounds,  the  more  the 
Liberals  will  be  regarded  as  the  givers  of  it,  even  though 
it  be  given  like  the  Eelief  Acts  of  1828  and  1829,  and  the 
Franchise  Act  of  1867,  through  the  Tories.  A  graver 
question  is  behind.  In  the  rural  controversy  between 
capital  and  labour,  even  apart  from  one  gross  and  unfor- 
gotten  offence  in  a  higher  rank,  the  parochial  clergy  have 
not  always  been  able  to  abstain  from  partisanship,  and, 
where  they  have  been  partisans,  it  has  commonly  not 
been  on  the  side  of  labour.  Notwithstanding  their 
general  and  exemplary  devotion  to  parochial  duty,  this 
has  tended  to  stimulate  a  feeling  in  favour  of  the  dis- 
establishment of  the  Church.  Of  this  sentiment  I  can- 
not measure  the  breadth  or  depth ;  but  it  may  be  found 
to  foiTU  a  real  ingredient  in  the  general  question.  It  has 
been  further  stimulated  by  one  incidental  cii'cumstance, 
far  from  unimportant.  The  agricultural  labourers,  in 
managing  their  case  as  to  wages,  have  required  the  aid  of 
speakers,  who  are  rather  harshly  named  agitators;  and 
the   speakcxs    among  them    are   commonly   those   who, 


158  THE    COUKTT   FRAISTCHISE, 

through  the  conduct  of  religious  exercises,  are  placed 
more  or  less  in  alliance  with  Nonconformity.  I  need 
hardly  add,  that  Nonconformity,  which  still  supplies,  to 
so  great  an  extent,  the  backbone  of  British  Liberalism,  is 
now  largely  intent  on  effecting  disestablishment. 

32.  Eut  it  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  opponents  of  the 
extension  with  whom  the  supposed  want  of  independence 
is  a  favourite  or  a  congenial  argument.  It  is  the  latent, 
creeping,  phantasmal  horror,  the  "vague  spiritual  fear" 
of  numerical  preponderance  in  the  forctground,  universal 
suffrage  in  the  distance,  which  disposes  many  men  under 
all  sorts  of  pretences,  and  Mr.  Lowe  with  a  frankness  of 
avowal  that  does  him  honour,  to  deny  household  suffrage 
to  one  half  the  working  population  of  the  land  after  the 
other  half,  no  whit  better  qualified,  have  shown  that  they 
can  use  it  innocently  and  well.  This  fear  of  numbers  is 
with  some  an  idiosyncratic  habit:  with  others  it  is  no 
better,  after  all  the  living  and  working  experience  we 
have  had,  than  an  ungenerous  and  unmanly  fear.  The 
supposed  dangers  of  a  numerical  preponderance  are  set 
aside  by  the  fact,  that  the  class  which  possesses  the  pre- 
ponderance does  not  act  for  itself  but  for  the  country 
The  supposed  danger  of  inferior  information  and  capacity, 
in  the  masses  not  enjoying  the  advantage  of  leisure,  is 
completely  neutralised  by  their  general  disposition  to  turn 
to  account  the  precepts  and  example  of  those  whom  they 
believe  to  be  better  informed.  We  have  in  this  country  a 
Monarchy  and  an  aristocracy  :  and  we  have  them,  because 
the  country  likes  to  have  them ;  and  likes  to  have  them, 
not  by  a  fitful  passing  humour,  but  by  the  alndlng  influ- 
ences  of  its  traditions,  its  feelings,  and  its  convictions.  If 
these  things  be  true,  we  may  go  forward  fearlessly;  if 
they  be  false,  we  ought,  without  loss  of  time,  to  go  a 


AND    ME.    LOWE    xnEREOX.  159 

great  way  back.      In   neither   case   is  it  well   tliat  we 
eliould  stand  where  we  are. 

33.  And  indeed  tlie  arguments  which  command  or  de- 
serve most  respect  in  this  opposition  are  those  of  the  very 
few  who  found  their  objection  to  a  public  enlargement  of 
the  sufii-ago  on  a  supposed  failure  in  what  has  already  been 
done.  It  is  at  any  rate  a  high  and  chivalrous  line  of 
argument,  in  part  adoijtcd  by  Mr.  Lowe,  which  insists 
U])on  the  claims  of  Politics  as  the  grand  architectonic* 
art,  claims  them  as  the  proper  dominion  of  the  most  ele- 
vated and  accomplished  minds,  and  boldly  avers  that,  fioiii 
the  day  when  the  common  clay  of  which  artisans  are  made 
came  to  enter  so  largely  into  the  composition  of  the  town 
constituencies,  the  former  level  of  Parliamentary  doctrine 
and  practice  has  declined.  Economy,  it  is  said,  is  at  a 
discount;  the  meddlesome  intrusion  of  Govei'nment  into 
matters  formerly  left  to  local  and  individual  energies  is  in 
vogue  ;  a  benumbing  centralisation  creeps  upon  us  ;  dema- 
goguism,  in  the  form  of  subservience  to  the  interests  of 
class,  with  the  avoidance  of  unpopular  reforms,  is,  as  Mr. 
Lowe  and  I  agree  in  thinking,  largely  practised.  Mixed 
questions  are  taken  hold  of  by  their  popular  end ;  and  the 
unpopular  but  wholesome  part  is  left  to  stand  o\(jrsine  die. 

34.  Thus  has  been  handled  the  great  subject  of  local 
government;  the  Administration  has  been  in  office  for  four 
sessions,  and  has  not  lifted  a  hand,  except  to  give  away, 
in  successive  doses  of  public  money  administered  to  the 
ratepayers,  the  powerful  leverage  by  which  they  might 
have  propelled  the  movement  of  a  great  and  truly  Consti- 
tutional reform.  Mr.  Lowe  and  I  are  here  at  one.  Indeed, 
no  one  perhaps  has  been  less  in  sympathy  than  myself 


Aristot.  Eth.  Nicorn.  i.  2. 


160  THE   COUNTY    FRANCHISE, 

with  the  action  of  the  present  Parliament.  But  we  must 
try  to  consider  the  years  since  1868  as  a  whole,  and  to 
give  them  fair  play.  So  considering  them,  I  say  that  the 
faults,  of  omission  and  of  commission,  are  almost  wholly 
faults  for  which  household  suffrage  is  not  responsible,  and 
that  it  has  exhibited  a  virtue  which  entirely  outweighs, 
and  casts  into  the  shade,  the  small  contribution  it  may 
have  made,  through  the  subserviency  to  appetite  of  a 
sprinkling  of  town  voters,  to  the  debit  side  of  the  account. 
This  great  merit  is,  a  quicker  sympathy  with  labour.  Until 
the  household  suffrage  had  been  given,  labour  had  not 
received  anything  like  full  justice  in  regard  to  either  of 
the  two  important  subjects  of  combinations  and  contracts. 
35.  It  is  pleasant  to  argue,  as  I  have  thus  far  argued, 
the  optimising  side  of  the  question.  I  go  all  lengths  in 
opposing  those  who  ascribe  to  the  extension  of  the  suffrage 
the  existing  and  in  some  respects  growing  evils  of  our 
Parliamentary  system.  I  am  one  of  those  who  think 
them  very  great ;  and  I  proceed  so  far  as  to  admit  that  no 
extension  of  the  suffrage,  wise  and  right  as  it  may  be,  will 
cure  them.  The  longer  I  Kve,  the  less  do  I  see,  in  the 
public  institutions  of  any  country,  even  a  tendency  to 
approximate  to  au  ideal  standard.  Turning  to  our  own, 
amidst  all  our  vaunted  and  all  our  real  improvements,  I 
perceive  in  some  very  important  respects  a  sad  tendency 
to  decline.  It  seems  to  me  that,  as  a  whole,  our  level  of 
public  principle  and  public  action  was  at  its  zenith  in  the 
twenty  years  or  thereabouts  which  succeeded  the  lleform 
Act  of  1832,  and  that  it  has  since  perceptibly  gone  down. 
I  agree  with  Mr.  Lowe  that  we  are  in  danger  of  engen- 
dering both  a  gerontocracy  and  a  ploUtocracy.*     He  asks 


♦  F,  a.  ibid.  p.  493. 


AND    MR.    LOWE    THKREON.  161 

■whether  any  one  is  hold  onoii2;h  to  allege  that  household 
suftVage  has  improved  the  House  of  Commons.  I  have 
already  pointed  out  the  essential  point  in  which  it  has. 
But,  under  the  mixed  conditions  of  human  life,  it  often 
happens  that  what  is  improving  in  one  point  of  view  may 
at  the  very  same  time  he  decaying  or  declining  in  another. 
The  gradual  movement  in  favour  of  gerontocracy  and  plou- 
tocracy  did  not  hegin  with  household  suffrage,  nor  am  I 
aware  that  their  advance  has  heen  accelerated  by  it. 

36.  The  influences  which  determine  both  the  moral  and 
the  intellectual  standard  of  a  legislature  are  very  mixed 
and  very  diverse.  Montes(|uieu,  I  think,  says,  that  in  the 
infancy  of  nations  the  man  forms  the  State ;  in  their  ma- 
turity, the  State  fonns  the  man.  But  1  form  a  very  high 
estimate  of  the  power  still  possessed  by  individuals,  even 
in  a  State  so  old  as  ours.  I  am  not  stifficientiy  detached 
and  impartial  to  discuss  this  portion  of  the  subject.  I  turn 
to  another  side  of  it — to  the  qualifications  which  attract 
the  favour  of  a  constituency. 

37.  These,  too,  are  very  various  ;  birth,  station,  talent, 
character,  former  service,  landed  possessions,  commercial 
and  manufacturing  connection,  and  lastly,  money.  The 
two  circumstances  which  strike  me  most  forcibly,  and 
most  painfully,  are,  first,  the  rapid  and  constant  advance 
of  the  money  power ;  secondly,  the  reduction,  almost  to 
zero,  of  the  chances  of  entrance  into  Parliament  for  men 
■who  have  nothing  to  rely  upon  but  their  talent  and  their 
character;  nothing,  that  is  to  say,  but  the  two  qualities, 
■which  ceilainly  stand  before  all  others  in  the  capacity  of 
rendi'ring  service  to  the  coxTutry.  These,  again,  are 
chiefly  the  young;  for  such  uicn  have  usually,  by  the 
time  they  reacli  middle  life,  attained,  without  great 
difficulty,  to  wealth  or  to   competence.     But  tlicy  have 

I.  M 


162  THE    COUNTY    FEANCHISE, 

then  passed  the  proper  period  for  beginning  an  effective 
Parliamentary  education.  There  have  been  honourable 
and  distinguished  exceptions ;  but,  as  a  rule,  it  would  be 
as  rational  to  begin  training  for  the  ballet  at  forty-five  or 
fifty,  as  for  the  real,  testing  work  of  the  Cabinet.  That 
union  of  suppleness  and  strength  which  is  absolutely 
requisite  for  the  higher  labours  of  the  administrator  and 
the  statesman  is  a  gift  the  development  of  which,  unless 
it  be  commenced  betimes,  nature  soon  places  beyond 
i-each.  There  is  indeed  scope  and  function  in  Parliament 
for  the  middle-aged  man,  and  even  for  men  like  myself, 
no  longer  middle-aged ;  but  nothing  can  compensate  for 
a  falling  off  in  the  stock  of  the  young  men  whom  we  need 
for  tbe  coming  time  ;  and  we  need  the  choicest  in  the 
country.  The  only  education  for  the  highest  work  in  the 
House  of  Commons  is,  as  a  rule,  that  given  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  Happily,  wc  have  still  a  supply,  in  cases 
where  hi^h  birth  and  family  influence  can  be  brought  to 
bear.  15 ut  we  cannot  afford  the  confinement  of  the 
admission  to  these  cases :  first,  because  they  arc  not 
enough ;  secondly,  because  our  being  confined  to  that 
class  for  the  statesmen  of  the  future  is  a  limitation  highly 
adverse  to  the  free  action  of  popular  principles,  and 
tending  to  add  enormously  to  the  weight  cast  into  the 
other  scale.  If  I  must  hold  the  language  of  party,  I  say 
it  is  the  Liberal  party  that  is  the  great  sufferer  by  the 
exclusion  of  this  class  ;  for  its  members  have  had  a  lai-ge, 
if  not  the  largest,  share  in  the  promotion  of  Liberal 
measures. 

38.  Their  place  has  been  taken  mainly  by  men  who  have 
been  recommen(l(?d  to  their  constituents  by  the  possession 
of  money.  The  numbers  of  tliose  who  sit  in  ^-irtue  of 
the  other  (iualificatious  that  have  been  euumerated,  are 


AND    MH.    LOWE   THKREON.  1G3 

probahly  much  as  they  were.  There  has  been  one  case 
only  of  great  gain,  and  one  of  great  loss.  The  loss  has 
been  among  those  who  had  the  very  best  capacity  to  serve 
the  country.  The  gain  has  accrued  to  those  whose  main 
object  is  to  serve  themselves.  I  do  not  mean  in  a  corrupt 
sense.  It  is  to  serve  themselves  by  social  advancement. 
The  total  exclusion  of  such  men  is  probably  not  to  be 
desired;  but  their  swollen  and  swelling  numbers  are  a 
national  calamity.  It  is  a  calamity  with  a  double  edge. 
Por  what  becomes  of  the  excluded  ?  Where  do  they 
now  obtain  their  education?  They  arc  mainly  driven  to 
the  Press.  The  services  of  the  Press  to  the  community, 
and  most  of  all  to  public  men,  are  invaluable  ;  but  the 
value  of  the  education  it  affords  to  the  young  is  a  very 
dilf'erent  (question.  It  gives  them  a  laborious  training  in 
irresponsible,  anonymous,  and  pungent  criticism,  in  lieu 
of  the  inanlj-  and  noble  discipline  which  a  youth  spent  in 
Parliament  imparts.  In  the  light  of  day,  under  the  eye 
and  judgment  of  tlie  best,  at  once  stimulated  and  re- 
strained, at  once  encouraged  and  abashed,  our  youth  had 
everything  to  sustain  a  high  sense  of  political  warfare,  to 
develop  the  better  parts  of  a  knightly  nature,  and  to 
rebuke  the  sordid  and  the  base.  Invert  all  these  expres- 
sions, and  we  obtain  a  tolerably  accurate  description  of 
the  kind  of  education  which  our  modern  arrangements 
have  provided  for  the  most  ready,  brilliant,  and  ser- 
viceable of  the  young  men  of  England,  in  lieu  of  a  seat  in 
Parliament.  These  are  not  pleasant  things  to  say ;  but  it 
is  perhaps  time  they  should  be  said. 

39.  One  great  cause  of  the  mischief  doubtless  is  the  ex- 
pensiveness  of  elections.  It  is  nothing  less  than  astonishing 
to  find  our  countrymen  so  little  awake  not  only  to  the 
serious  amount  of  this  mischief,  but  to  its  scandalous  and 

M  2 


164  THE    COUNTT   FEAITCHISE, 

debasing  character;  this  is  ploiitocracy  indeed,  in  the 
most  deformed  of  all  its  shapes,  and  with  the  ugliest  of 
all  its  faces.  Wisdom  and  virtue !  cries  Mr.  Burke. 
Poimds,  shillings,  and  pence !  answer  the  low  practice 
and  opinion  of  England.  We  think,  or  act  as  if  we 
thought,  that  as  the  thews  and  sinews  of  a  soldier  in  some 
armies  may  be  replaced  by  a  certain  sum  of  money,  plus 
other  thews  and  sinews,  so  intellectual  and  moral  force 
may  fairly  enough  be  turned  out  of  doors,  provided  a 
certain  amount  of  money,  perhaps  without  any  thews  and 
sinews  at  all,  be  forthcoming  in  its  place. 

40.  Under  the  system  of  the  unreformed  Parliament,  it 
is  true  that  particular  elections  occasionally  cost  enormous 
sums  ;  even  sums  that  are  now  never  heard  of.  But  such 
elections  were  exceedingly  rare.  And  that  old  system, 
which  made  no  vaunt  of  being  popular,  was  as  a  whole 
far  more  favourable  to  poor,  but  capable  and  cultivated 
men,  than  is  our  present  seemingly  democratic  legislation, 
A  great  reform  in  this  respect  ought  to  be  an  article  of 
the  Liberal  creed.  If  no  such  reform  is  achieved,  the 
mere  extension  of  the  sufirage  will  augment  this  par- 
ticular evil,  and  a  portion  of  the  good  it  should  effect  will 
thus  be  neutralised.  There  are  two  obstacles  :  one  is  a 
general  deadness  of  opinion  respecting  the  mischief ;  the 
other  is  Tory  opposition  to  its  removal.  As  to  the  first, 
let  one  instance  suffice.  In  a  new  university  seat,  on  a 
recent  vacancy,  the  indispensable  condition  for  becoming 
a  candidate  -was  to  produce  the  sum  of  four  thousand 
pounds.  The  seat  might  almost  as  well  have  been  sold, 
like  Mr.  Ward  Beecher's  pews  in  Brooklyn  or  jS'ew  York, 
by  public  auction.  What  must  be  the  gcmcral  level  of 
opinion  in  a  country  on  the  point,  when  this  can 
happen  in  one  of  the  constituencies  thought  to  be  most 


AND    MR.    LOWK   THEEEON.  165 

cnlisih toned  ?  IBut  there  is  also  another  singular  feature 
in  tlie  case.  The  party  which  opposes  the  extension  of 
the  francliise,  and  urges,  among  other  reasons  of  resistance, 
the  increase  of  expense  it  will  cause,  is  the  very  same 
party  which  resists,  and  will  resist,  every  serious  attempt 
to  cheapen  elections.  Two  new  articles,  pretty  closely 
associated  together,  have  lately  been  added  to  the  Tory 
creed,  not  by  a  general  council,  but  by  silent  con- 
sent :  faith  in  the  long  purse,  and  faith  in  what  Mr. 
Bright,  by  one  of  his  many  happy  phi-ases,  dubbed  tlie 
residuum. 

41.  Mr.  Lowe  and  I  supply  two  conspicuous  instances 
of  disinterested  choice  on  tlie  part  of  our  respective  con- 
stituencies ;  choice  which,  whether  right  or  wrong,  has 
been  made  on  purely  public  grounds.  What  Ave  want, 
and  want  still  more  than  the  cheapening  of  elections,  is 
that  every  constituency,  that  each  party  in  every  con- 
stituency shall  choose  its  candidate  upon  purely  public 
grounds.  In  the  town  constituencies,  of  which  alone 
I  am  now  about  to  speak,  this  is  not  so.  We  should 
not  then  have  had  a  man  of  the  eminence  and  value  of 
Lord  Selborne,  after  he  had  sat  for  a  single  Parliament, 
excluded  long,  and  excluded  hopelessly,  had  it  not  been 
for  an  exercise  of  nominating  influence  and  a  disposition 
in  the  particular  borough  to  conform  to  it,  which  con- 
stituted an  accident  as  rare  as  it  was  happy.  Vv"e  shoidd 
not  have  had  the  distinguished  Solicitor-General  of  a 
Government  having  so  much  favour  with  the  constituen- 
cies as  the  present  Government  once  had,  waiting  through 
more  than  one  session  for  a  seat.  We  should  not  have  had, 
as  we  have  at  this  moment,  many  men  of  tried  capacity  and 
distinguished  public  service,  and  many  other  men  of  high 
and  proved  promise,  waiting  in  vain  outside  the  doors. 


166  THE    COUNTY   FRANCHISE, 

We  should  not  have  had  that  decline  in  the  average  quality 
of  the  personnel  of  the  Eepresentative  House,  which  has, 
I  fear,  unquestionably  taken  place  since  the  first  Parlia- 
ment that  met  under  the  Reform  Act. 

42.  On  this  subject  I  frankly  own  that  I  do  not  under- 
stand Mr.  Lowe.  I  should  have  anticipated  from  him  a  keen 
anxiety  that  local  claims  should  not  prevail  against  public 
motives  in  the  choice  of  candidates :  that  all  candidates 
should  be  chosen  as  he  has  himself  been  chosen.  Eut  he 
tells  us  of  that  "  excellent  principle  in  English  elections," 
the  principle  of  "  seeking  our  electing  bodies  "in  "  organi- 
sations which  are  in  the  habit  of  acting  together  for  other 
than  electoral  purposes."  Why  is  this  so  excellent  a 
principle  ?  It  would  seem  odd  on  general  grounds  to  say 
that,  when  you  have  a  function  of  the  very  highest  im- 
portance to  be  discharged,  you  should  entrust  the  discharge 
of  it,  not  to  bodies  chosen  and  put  together  for  their  fitness 
to  discharge  it,  but  to  bodies  chosen,  and  presumably 
fitted,  to  do  something  else.  It  seems  like  saying  this : 
electoral  powers  shall  be  given  to  non-electoral  fitness.  I 
can  see,  indeed,  a  set  of  reasons  for  lauding  this  principle  ; 
but  they  are  reasons  turned  upside  down.  This  plan, 
standing  as  it  now  stands,  almost  without  modification, 
has  been  found  to  offer  the  strong(.'st  obstacles  to  extension 
of  the  franchise.  It  raises  the  self-consciousness,  the 
localism,  the  egotism  of  each  constituency  to  its  maximum. 
It  creates  for  bodies,  what  we  denounce  and  destroy  in 
individuals,  a  vested  interest  in  representation.  It  is  tlio 
public-house  monopoly  over  again,  carried  into  the  world 
of  politics.  It  lays  the  ground  for  the  new-fashioned 
bribery  of  our  day,  the  bribery  of  constituencies,  of  such 
a  portion  of  them,  that  is  to  say,  as  will  turn  the  scale;  in 
tlie  lump :  by  local  public  works,  by  building  specula- 


AND    MR.    LOAVK    TlIKltKON'.  107 

tions,  by  roads  and  other  town  improvements  which  "  our 
I'espective  representative "  has  effected  or  announced. 
These,  I  am  sure,  are  not  Mr.  Lowe's  reasons  for  the  eulogy- 
he  has  pronounced :  but  they  are,  I  fear,  the  reasons  of 
many.  Will  he  forgive  me  if  I  make  bold  to  say  that  I 
think  his  reason  is  a  superstition  ?  A  method  which  once 
was  unavoidable,  and  was  then  not  only  unavoidable  but 
admirable,  he  lauds  after  the  reasons  for  it  have  ceased 
to  exist,  and  when  new  reasons  for  modifying  and  relaxing 
it  have  come  into  force.  I  admit  that  Mr.  Burke  com- 
mended it ;  and  very  loth  am  I,  except  in  some  vital 
matters  of  the  French  Revolution,  to  dissent  from  that 
great  authority.  But,  since  the  time  of  Mr.  Burke,  old 
dangers  have  disappeared,  new  dangers  have  come  into 
view,  new  e^als  into  almost  a  virulent  activity ;  the  ad- 
justment of  political  and  social  forces  has  been  entirely 
remodelled.  This  dictum  lands  me  for  a  moment  upon  the 
field  of  history. 

43.  During  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  reign  of  George 
the  Third,  the  public  liberties  had  not  yet  been  solidly 
and  finally  consolidated.  Ireland  was  still  held  as  a  con- 
quered country.  Scotland  was  entirely  without  popular 
representation.  I  take  this  opportunity  of  recording  my 
gratitude  for  the  invaluable  public  services  of  a  man  whom, 
except  as  to  his  public  serWces,  I  do  not  wish  to  mention. 
The  name  of  Wilkes  deserves  distinction  in  our  sphere ; 
it  deserves  to  be  enrolled  upon  the  list  of  the  great  cham- 
pions of  our  freedom. 

44.  The  onginal  virtue  and  end  of  our  borough-system 
were,  in  making  provision  for  the  wants  of  the  State,  to  es- 
tablish public  liberty  against  the  aristocracy  and  the  Crown. 
The  self-consciousness  and  the  local  traditions  of  each  con- 
stituency had  then  no  tendency  to  di'aw  it  away  from  the 


168  THE    COUNTY    FRANCHISE, 

straightest  public  aims.  Tliey  were  all  engaged,  with  one 
mind,  in  one  purpose  ;  and  in  nothing  else.  In  a  standing 
internal  effort  of  this  kind,  the  burgesses  derived  an 
immense  addition  of  strength  from  the  fact  that  they 
represented  not  only  a  certain  number  of  individuals 
— the  individual  was  then  comparatively  nobody  and 
nothing — but  recognised  historical  bodies. 

45.  Since  the  Reform  Act,  if  not  before  it,  this  great 
controversy  has  been  at  an  end.  The  public  liberties  are 
absolutely  in  the  hands  of  the  constituencies.  It  is  not 
from  the  Crown,  nor  even  from  the  aristocracy,  that  they 
have  anything  to  fear ;  but  it  is  upon  less  conspicuous 
issues,  from  subtler  and  from  meaner  influences  outside 
them,  and  from  what  is  within  them ;  from  sluggishness 
as  to  public  affairs,  from  the  wealth-worship  which  marks 
and  deforms  our  time,  from  the  disposition  to  regard  too 
much  the  local  and  sectional  interests  or  considerations, 
too  little  those  which  are  of  the  nation  only.  To  find  the 
best  man,  that  is  their  duty ;  to  define  the  word,  that  is 
their  difiiculty,  a  difiiculty  they  have  not  yet  surmounted. 

4G.  I  think  I  have  now  shown  why  we  should  pause 
before  giving  an  unqualified  adhesion  to  Mr.  Lowe's  pane- 
gyric on  his  ' '  excellent  principle."  My  words  may  be  taken 
as  a  partial  exhibition  of  what  is  to  be  said  against  it. 
They  might  load  to  injustice  if  I  were  supposed  to  mean 
that  nothing  can  be  said  in  their  favour.  The  words  will 
be  as  unpalatable  as  the  roll  in  Jeremiah,  that  was  read 
by  Baruch  the  scribe,  and  which,  because  it  shocked  the 
cars  of  the  king,  Jchudi  cut  u])  Avith  a  penknife,  and  cast 
it  into  the  fire  that  was  upon  the  hearth.'''"  Ihit  there  is 
little  fear  of  their   leading  to   injustice.      Such   is   tho 


Jeremiah  x.xxvi. 


AND    ME.    LOWE    THEKEOX.  109 

supererogatory  strength  embedded  in  the  present  arrange- 
ment of  constituencies,  that  they  can  not  only  uphold 
themselves,  hut  they  can  also,  not  in  round  argument,  but 
in  fact,  deny,  at  least  for  a  time,  the  franchise  to  those 
who  ought  to,  but  do  not,  possess  it.  "  Rag  tag  and 
bobtail,"  disguised  and  got  up  with  makeshift  arms, 
hovering  in  the  distance,  have  before  now  decided  battles. 
So  in  the  battle  of  the  franchise  there  hovers  on  the  flanks 
an  awful  phantom.  It  is  yclept  "redistribution  of  seats." 
This  hobgoblin  decided  the  battle,  and  slew  the  INlinistry 
of  1866.  It  may  decide  more  battles,  and  slay  more 
Ministries.  Its  name  acts  with  a  subtle  and  magic  power 
on  the  inner  conscioixsness,  not  the  outer  one,  of  the 
"  member  "  for  our  city  or  borougli.  AVhen  the  enfran- 
chising arguments,  long  floating  dimly  before  him,  begin  a 
little  to  warTU  his  blood,  or  if  not  that,  yet  to  make  him 
feel  uncomfortable ;  all  this  is  in  tlio  outer  consciousness 
alone.  I3ut  wlieu  the  black  banner  waves  in  his  eye,  on 
which  are  written  the  spectral  letters  "  redistribution  of 
seats,"  they  operate  as  drastically  as  if  they  were  mene 
mcne  tekel  upharsin,  they  go  straight  to  the  seat  of  life, 
to  the  very  heart  and  mind,  not  indeed  of  the  man,  but 
of  the  "member." 

47.  Let  me  not  then  be  too  sanguine,  and  let  Mr.  Lowe 
abate  his  alarms.  His  "  excellent  principle,"  especially 
when  mounted  on  such  a  charger  as  himself,  will  ytt  do 
service  in  the  held.  It  is  a  veteran  that  has  stood,  and 
will  stand,  nnieh  battering.  It  may  be  long  before  the 
country  is  able  to  reckon  with  it,  and  the  reckoning, 
when  it  does  come,  will  be  but  mild.  Do  not  then  let  it 
exasperate  the  nation,  by  an  obstinate  withholding  of  the 
county  franchise  from  that  moiety  of  our  householdei-s 
which  is  not  the  least  qualified  to  use  it  innocently  and 


170  THE    COUNTY    FRANCHISE. 

\vell.     This  in  the  meantime,  with  good  measure  for  the 
cheapening  of  elections,  will  be  a  great  and  signal  boon. 
And  we  shall  lie  at  the  foot  of  the  "precipice,"  as  we 
now  stand  at  the  top,  in  perfect  comfort.     And  our  Con- 
stitution, so  often  destroyed  by  rash  and  profane  hands, 
wdth  its  nine,  or  ninety  times  nine,  cat-like   lives,  will 
still  be,  for  the  Mr.  Lowe  of  that  day,  the  Constitution 
"  which  has  been  the  admiration  of  the  world  for  five 
hundred    years."     Much,    when   all    these    matters   are 
settled,  will  have  been  done  to  invigorate  the  institutions 
of  the  land,  to   strengthen  the  national   cohesion,  to  in- 
crease the  sum  total  of  the  public  energies,  to  establish 
confidence  between  class  and  class,  to  train  the  people  for 
the  habitual,  hereditary  discharge  of  public  duty.     But 
I  am  sorry  that  my  harp,  like  the  harp  "  in  Tara's  hall," 
must  yet,  amidst  all  this  prospective  joy,  be  again  "tuned 
to  notes  of  sadness."  ^Ye  shall  not  have  landed  in  Utopia. 
Some  new  leaks  will  open  where  more  old  ones  have  been 
stopped.     That  ancient  trio,  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil,  will   be   too    strong  for  even  an  approach  to   the 
abstract  standard  of  a  Polity.     The  public,  a  fine  animal, 
is  strong  but  sleepy.     When  he  gets  active,  he  gets  tired  ; 
they  tell  him  he  has  been  excited,  and  it  has  been  bad  for 
his  health ;  he  lays  his  head  upon  his  pillow  ;  but  the 
interests,  ever  so  anxious  lest  he  should  hurt  himself  by 
over-exertion,  ever  wakefxd,  ever  nimble,  ever  "  redeem- 
ing the  time,"  that  is  to  say,  selling  it  in  the  best  market 
— they  set  to  while  he  is  asleep,  and  make  a  night  of  it. 
There  will  always  be  scandals  to  make  us  humble,  and 
faults  and  wants  crying  aloud  to  make  us  diligent;  but 
political  progress,  if  intermittent  and  qualified,  has  on  the 
whole  been  practical  and  real,  and  such,  in  tliis  land  of 
ours,  may  it  ever  be. 


VI. 

LAST  WORDS  ON  THE  COUNTY  FRANCHISE  * 

1.  To  close  a  scone  from  what  is  called  "Parliament  out 
of  session,"  or  at  least  my  own  part  in  that  scene,  I  will 
now  endeavour  to  sum  up  the  case  on  the  extension  of 
household  suffrage;  to  the  Counties,  as  it  stands  between 
Mr.  Lowe  and  myself.  My  arguments  have  been  as 
follows. 

( 1 . )  That  the  question  is  again  in  danger  of  being  played 
with,  for  the  mere  purposes  of  party,  like  the  same  ques- 
tion for  the  lioroughs  in  the  session  of  1867.  I  placed 
this  argument  in  the  foreground  of  my  appeal  to  Mr. 
Lowe,  with  a  hope  grounded  on  the  proverb  that  the 
burnt  child  dreads  the  fire. 

(2.)  That  the  mere  ])rcsumptions  against  organic  change, 
which  were  strong  until  the  epoch  of  the  first  Reform  Act, 
had  then  become  comparatively  weak ;  and  that  the  acts 
of  1867  and  1869,  which  enfranchised  the  householders  in 
the  towns,  had  created  an  opposite  presumption  in  favour 
of  the  householders  in  the  counties,  unless  a  valid  plea  in 
bar  could  be  set  up. 

(3.)  No  such  plea  can  be  found  in  the  natural  distinction 
between  town  and  county;  now  that  so  many  of  our 
"  Knights  of  the  shire"  represent  constituencies  essentially 
urban,  and  that  so  many  of  our  "  Eurgesses  "  do  in  fact  sit 


ReprintuJ  from  Tlie  Nineteenth  Century,  January  1878. 


172  LAST    WORDS    ON    THE    COtNTY   FKANCHISE. 

for  little  couuties,  in  which  the  town  suffrage  has  heen 
given  to  populations  completely  or  principally  rural.  The 
present  distribution  of  the  vote,  then,  is  capricious  ;  and 
a  capricious  law  cannot  command  respect  or  permanence. 

(4.)  No  such  bar  can  be  found  in  comparative  want  of 
qualification ;  either  as  to  absence  of  substantial  interest 
or  as  to  selfishness,  or  as  to  passion.  Every  class  admitted 
to  the  franchise  improves,  in  some  new  respect,  the 
competency  of  Parliament.  Tlie  argument  in  favour  of 
capacity  merely  intellectual  as  an  exclusive  title,  urged 
as  it  is  now  urged,  logically  and  really  means  absolute 
government ;  and,  among  our  countrymen,  any  lack  in 
this  respect  is  amply  made  up  by  the  trust  and  deference 
towards  others  of  the  classes  less  informed,  or  less  endowed 
with  leisure. 

(5.)  Passing  episodically  to  a  broader  ground,  my  paper 
argues,  that  there  are  some  positive  reasons  for  the  enfran- 
chisement of  persons  who  contribute  to  the  revenue  and 
to  the  national  wealth ;  give,  through  the  family,  pledges 
to  society  ;  and  may  also  do  it  serious  mischiefs.  These 
persons,  as  I  argue,  will  be  more  useful,  and  less  harmful, 
when  associated  with  its  interests,  and  trained  in  their 
degree  to  its  political  as  well  as  its  local  afi^airs. 

(6.)  Inequality  in  the  voters,  taken  in  the  abstract, 
might  require  inequality  in  the  vote.  If  we  admit  that  this 
inequality  is  in  part  (and  in  part  only)  measured  by  pro- 
perty and  station,  a  scale  to  determine  it  would  be  both 
odious  and  impi'acticable ;  and  it  is  attained  to  some  ex- 
tent, without  objection,  both  by  the  direct  and  by  the 
indirect  influence  which  attaches  to  possessions. 

(7.)  To  the  merely  numerical  argument,  that  the  rich 
and  educated  minority  are  to  be  given  over  to  a  majority 
of  daily  labourers,  I  reply  that  it  proves  too  much  and  too 


LAST   WORDS   OJf   TnE   COtTNTT   FKANCniSE.  173 

littlo.  Too  miich  ;  for  it  would  make  all  our  enfranchiso- 
mi'iits  wrong,  since  each  class  admitted,  in  the  downward 
series,  has  outnumbered  the  aggregate  of  classes  above  it. 
Too  little  ;  for  all  these  enfranchisements  have  done  good, 
so  that  the  mere  argument  of  number  need  not  raise  the 
presumption  of  harm  to  follow. 

(8.)  The  love  of  political  equality  may  be  dangerous; 
but  as  distinct  from  the  love  of  liberty,  it  does  not  prevail 
in  this  country. 

(9.)  The  experience  of  1848,  amidst  the  shock  of  Euro- 
pean revolutions,  showed  that  the  reform  of  Parliament 
had  immensely  strengthened  the  foundations  of  our  social 
order. 

(10.)  The  experience  of  18G9— 77  has  shown  that  the 
large  admission  of  labour  as  an  element  of  the  constituencies 
has  given  us  Parliaments  more  alive  to  its  just  interests, 
but  ill  no  respect  disposed  to  trespass  on  the  rights  of  the 
non-labouring  classes. 

(11.)  The  independence  of  the  county  householder  is 
safe  as  against  intimidation  ;  and  we  have  no  reason  to 
suppose  he  will  not  duly  use  for  himself  the  faculty  of 
self-government. 

2.  From  these  arguments  I  passed  on  to  collateral 
topics,  in  which  I  am  very  much  at  one  with  Mr.  Lowe ; 
and  which,  therefore,  need  not  here  be  further  noticed. 
Let  me  then  consider  his  Keply. 

And  first  I  must  point  out  that  those  who  form  their 
idea  of  my  argument  from  his  pages  will  form  an  incorrect 
and  misleading  idea  of  it.  He  states  at  the  outset,  and 
repeatedly,*  that  1  have  urged  the  expediency  of  creating 
equal  electoral  districts.     They  are  once  named  incident- 


•  Fortnightly  Review,  pp.  733,  735,  742. 


174  LAST   WOEDS    ON   THE   COUNTY   FRANCHISE. 

ally,  but  only  as  enhancing  in  the  minds  of  many  the 
horrors  of  "  anything  like  universal  suffrage,"  and  are  then 
forthwith  excluded  from  the  argument ;  *  which  contem- 
plates, as  we  all  do,  a  redistribution  of  seats,  and  says  as 
to  this:f  "The  reckoning,  when  it  docs  come,  will  be 
but  mild." 

When,  passing  from  a  series  of  narrower  and  more 
special  to  wider  arguments,  I  "  suspend  for  a  moment  "J 
that  series,  the  Answer  says  "he  asks  leave  to  withdraw"§ 
his  conclusion,  and,  "  he  threw  up  the  attempt." 

When  I  say  there  are  "some  reasons"  in  favour  of 
enfranchising  certain  persons,  ||  this  he  converts  into  the 
proposition  that  they  are  "  entitled  to  a  vote."  IF 

When  I  point  out  certain  "  conditions  previous," 
namely  contribution  to  revenue,  contribution  to  national 
■wealth,  the  pledges  of  the  "  hoiise-fathcr  "  as  such,  the 
mischiefs  that  the  bad  citizen  may  do,**  the  Heply  sets 
forth  f  I  that  these  are  ray  only  arguments,  "the  four 
Corinthian  pillars  which  are  destined  to  support  the 
enormous  fabric  of  universal  suffrage."  This,  it  is  added, 
"  will  hardly  be  believed."  I  go  farther.  I  trust  it  will 
not  be  believed  at  all.  For  example,  the  very  same  para- 
graph contains  an  argument  perfectly  distinct,  to  which 
the  previous  arguments  are  introductory.  It  argues  "  that 
all  those  who  live  in  a  country  should  take  an  interest  in 
that  country,  should  love  that  country;"  and  that  the 
vote  gives  that  sense  of  interest,  and  fosters  that  love. 
Mr.  Lowe  may  say,  if  he  likes,  that  this  is  a  bad  argu- 
ment; but  to  deny  its  existence  is  hardly  consistent  either 

*  Slip.  p.  142.  II  Sup.  p.  143. 

t  Sitp.  p.  169.  i  F.  li.  p.  742. 

t  Sup.  J).  142.  **  Sup.  p.  148. 

§  F.  R.  pp.  737,  742.  ft  ^'-  i<-  P-  T6d 


LAST   WOUDS    ON    THE   COUNTY    FRANCHISE.  175 

"u-ith  the  logic  for  which  he  is  famous,  or  with  the  care 
which  so  grave  a  subject  demands. 

Having  given  these  instances  by  way  of  caveat,  and 
having  shown  how  he  has  separated  the  four  Corinthian 
piUars  from  their  fellows,  I  will  now  inquire  with  what 
measure  of  notice  he  thinks  these  pillars  themselves 
severally  deserve  to  be  handled. 

3.  The  man,  I  have  urged,  is  "a  contributor  to  the 
public  revenue."  To  this  it  is  answered:  "The  same 
thing  may  be  said  of  every  dog  "  ;  and  "a  man  satisfies 
the  qualification  by  paying  for  a  glass  of  beer."  Now, 
when  tlic  plea  on  my  side  is  that  adult  men  generally 
are  habitual  and  large  contributors  to  revenue,  it  is  no 
answer  to  urge  that  a  particular  person  may  contribute 
but  slightly  and  casually.  Still  less  is  it  an  answer,  in 
law  or  fact,  to  say  that  a  dog  contributes  to  revenue.  In 
law,  a  man  who  chooses  to  keep  a  dog  pays  for  leave  to 
keep  him.  In  fact,  I  had  thought  Mr.  Lowe's  own  Parlia- 
mentary experience  of  the  dog-tax  had  conclusively  taught 
him  that,  while  the  barking  was  certainly  considerable, 
they  were  men,  and  not  dogs,  who  paid  the  impost. 

4.  The  man,  I  have  again  urged,  contributes  by  his 
labour  (as  distinct  fi'om  capital)  to  the  public  wealth. 
The  Reply  says,  that  so  does  the  cart-horse.  Now  suppose 
a  labourer  is  digging  in  my  garden,  and  a  friend  says  to 
me,  "No  doubt  you  ])ay  him  wages."  I  do  not  answer, 
"  Why  should  1  ?  Would  you  pay  Avages  to  the  spade  ?  " 
Tlie  spade,  like  the  cart-horse,  contributes  to  the  result; 
but  neither  the  spade  nor  the  cart-horse  has,  as  the  man 
has  because  he  is  a  man,  the  first  elements  of  capacity  to 
give  a  vote. 

5.  The  man,  I  h:ive  pleaded,  "has  given  pledges  to 
society  by   constituting  himself  the  head  of  a  family,  in 


176  lAST   WORDS    ON    THE    COUNTY   FRANCHISE. 

which  is  lodged  a  large  part  of  his  affections."  The 
answer  is  :  "  This  is  the  condition  of  the  continuance  of 
the  species,  which  we  share  with  the  lower  animals." 
Here,  I  must  own,  is  opened  to  me  a  new  chapter  in 
natural  history.  I  was  not  aware  that  the  lower  animals 
did  constitute  families  as  man  does,  or  that  the  sires  of 
horses  and  dogs,  for  example,  did,  as  man  does,  invest 
affections,  which  are  a  large  and  real  portion  of  ourselves, 
in  the  being  and  welfare  of  their  offspring.  I  use 
advisedly  the  term  "  invest,"  and  commend  it  to  the 
consideration  of  those  who  may  be  tempted  to  think  that 
the  affections  are  after  all  no  more  than  "sentiment," 
that  the  human  heart  is  but  a  shadow,  and  that  property 
is  the  only  thing  which  has  reality  and  solidity  enough 
about  it  for  an  investment. 

6.  Every  man,  I  likewise  observed,  has  great  powers  of 
mischief.  So,  says  the  Reply,  "has  almost  every  animal." 
It  is  most  true.  Therefore,  so  far  as  animal  nature  gives 
us  the  opportunity,  we  endeavour  to  neutralise  these 
powers  of  mischief,  and  to  convert  them  into  instruments 
of  good,  by  domestication ;  a  process  which  is  not  in  its 
nature  penal,  but  which  turns  mainly  on  improved  treat- 
ment, and  gives  increased  happiness  of  life.  It  is  ray 
opponent  who  has  established  this  analogy,  in  succinct 
and  almost  contemptuous  terms;  but,  so  far  as  it  subsists 
at  all,  it  teaches  that  powers  of  miscliief  in  mixed  natures 
are  best  met,  not  by  blind  undistinguishing  force,  not  by 
resistance  without  remedy,  but  by  developing  the  faculties, 
and  enlarging  to  their  utmost  soope  the  op])ortunities  for 
good,  of  the  creature  to  whom  they  belong. 

7.  We  are  told,*  "it  is  well  settled  "  that  no  one  is  per- 

*  F.  E.  p.  739. 


LAST    WORDS    ON    THK   COUMY    FRANCniSE.  177 

mitted  to  say  "  anything  against  the  poor."  If  so,  it  is 
at  least  equally  well  settled  that,  without  any  permission, 
they  may  be  ccnsui'ed  and  condemned  ad  lihiiiua  ;  and  the 
Keply  itself  is  the  proof.  The  "virtues,  capacities,  and 
talents"  imputed  to  them  are  "imaginary."*  Their 
desires  are  stronger  as  their  needs  are  greater,  and  as  the 
stake  which  they  risk  by  change  is  smaller.f  They  arc 
more  likely  to  seek  to  create  by  law  a  property  for  them- 
selves than  to  respect  the  property  of  others.  J  They  will 
require  their  wages  to  be  maintained  by  law,  the  articles 
they  consume  to  be  relieved  from  taxation,  the  articles 
they  produce  to  be  covered  against  competition. §  The 
very  qualities  which  the  opponents  of  liberty  might  fairly 
be  expected  to  regard  with  some  favour,  are  treated  with 
ridicule  or  vituperation.  I  had  pointed  out  their  notorious 
tendency  to  defer  to  classes  and  persons  superior  in 
station,  and  favoured  with  leisure.  How  absurd,  inti- 
mates the  Reply,  that  they  should  confide  in  those  against 
whom  they  are  to  protect  themselves!  ||  I  had  pointed 
out  that  the  English  people  are  lovers,  not  of  equality,  but 
of  inequality.  But  this,  instead  of  appeasing,  exasperates. 
It  seems  that  I, 

''like  many  nnollior  babbler,  luirt 
AVhom  I  would  soothe,  and  liarmcd  where  I  woukl  htal."1J' 

Yet  surely  the  points  arc  worthy  of  some  consideration 
by  the  impartial  inquirer,  by  the  honest  and  ingenuous 
alarmist,  by  every  man  except  those  whose  mental  vision 
enables  them  to  concentrate  light,  as  a  burning-glass  con- 
centrates heat,  and  to  flash  it   with   a  vividness  almost 


*  F.  i?.  p.  745.  §  Ihkl.  p.  745. 

t   Ihkl  p.  7r.6.  II    Vnd.  p.  7:56. 

j  /6k/.  p.  7;59.  "il  Tcuny.-on, 'Guinevere.* 


178  LAST    WOEDS    OJT    THE    COFNTT    FEATfCHISE. 

preternatural  tipon  some  one  nick  or  corner  of  a  sutjcct, 
but  condemns  them  to  see  that  subject  in  and  at  the  nick 
or  corner  only,  and  never  in  its  full  and  natural  scope. 
On  those,  to  whom  we  defer,  we  are  undoubtedly  less 
disposed  to  trespass.  If  among  beings  variously  endowed, 
gifted  with  freedom  of  the  will,  and  fitted  for  progress, 
we  find  social  inequality  to  be  deemed  by  our  country- 
men a  sound  and  normal  arrangement,  that  is  surely  in 
the  nature  pro  tanto  of  a  security  against  the  levelling,  if 
not  plundering,  tendencies  which  it  is  Mr.  Lowe's 
calamity  to  believe  ingrained  in  the  English  people. 

8.  If,  in  a  case  like  this,  what  may  be  termed  conciliatory 
arguments  fail  to  obtain  the  smallest  grain  of  acknowledg- 
ment, so  it  is  the  doom  of  facts  to  remain  hopelessly 
invisible.  To  me  it  seemed  a  plea  not  without  its  place 
in  the  general  argument,  that  the  popular  judgment  was 
often  more  just  than  that  of  the  higher  orders.  The 
Reply  says  :  *  "  We  should  like  to  have  had  an  instance, 
but  none  is  given."  To  enumerate  the  instances  in  full 
would  be  beyond  the  compass  of  an  article  which  aims  at 
bringing  the  question  to  a  point ;  or,  indeed,  of  any 
article.  It  might  be  enough  to  say  the  "instances" 
make  up  nearly  the  whole  history  of  the  country  since 
the  peace  of  1815.  If  tliis  be  too  vague,  I  will  give 
some  heads,  most  of  wliich  include  largo  groups  of  in- 
stances. 1.  The  Abolition  of  Slavery.  2.  The  Eeform 
of  Parliament.  3.  The  Abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws,  of 
the  Navigation  Laws,  of  some  twelve  hundred  Duties  of 
Customs  and  Excise.  4.  The  Abolition  of  the  Sacra- 
mental and  other  Ileligious  Tests.  5.  The  Eeform  of  the 
shameful  Criminal  Code,  which  too  long  dishonoured  the 

•  F.  R.  p.  738. 


LAST   WORDS   ON    THE   COTTKTY    FRANCnrSE.  179 

country-  6.  The  Reform  of  our  unjust  and  unequal  Laws 
of  Combination  and  of  Contract.  7.  The  direction  of  our 
Foreign  Policy  in  a  sense  favourable  to  the  aspirations  of 
freedom  and  not  to  the  tactics  of  the  Holy  Alliance.  8.  I 
will  add  another  and  a  very  testing  question,  drawn  from 
another  sphere.  "We  have  all  had  before  us  the  life  and 
character  of  the  Prince  Consort.  On  wliat  social  levels  was 
he  most  justly  judged  and  most  highly  estimated  ?  Was 
it  in  the  salons,  or  was  it  by  the  nation  ?  In  this  list  I 
avoid  burning  questions  of  to-day,  or  I  might  lodge  an 
appeal  to  Mr.  Lo^vo  individually  on  the  matter  of  Ivluca- 
tion,  and  on  the  great  controversy  of  the  East.  Uut,  in 
sum,  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  subject  of  the  first 
magnitude  which  might  not  be  specified  in  the  list,  unless 
perhaps  that  of  Eoman  Catholic  emancipation.  Without 
any  other  exception,  the  popular  judgment  on  these  broad 
issues  has  been  more  nearly  just  and  true,  has  gone  more 
to  the  root  of  the  matter,  than  that  of  the  higher  orders. 
The  question  is  not  whether  this  confession  is  one  agree- 
able to  make,  but  whether  it  in  true.  Sometimes,  indeed, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Act,  high  and 
low,  rich  and  poor,  may  have  gone  wrong  together. 

9.  But  I  may  faiiiy  retort  the  question  which  has  been 
put,  and  ask  the  adversary  to  furnish  his  list  of  great  and 
engrossing  subjects,  in  which  the  higher  orders  have,  during 
the  last  half-century,  been  mainly  right,  and  the  people 
wrong.  Nor  let  him,  with  Protean  elasticity,  turn  on  me 
and  say,  "  Aha !  there  it  is  :  you  evidently  mean  that  mere 
numbers,  as  they  have  judged  moi-e  justly,  should  have  all 
the  power."  I  mean  no  such  thing.  The  nation  has 
drawn  a  great,  perhaps  the  greatest,  part  of  its  lights 
from  the  minority  placed  above  ;  but  has  drawn  them 
from  a  minority  of  that  minority.     Look  back  upon  that 

N   2 


180  LAST    WORDS    ON    THE    COTUSTTY   FKANCHISE. 

dark  time  of  our  domestic  history,  which  followed  the 
peace  of  1815.  As  it  is  in  the  higher  order  that  the  very 
hij;hest  forms  of  personal  character  are  exhibited,  so  in  the 
political  sphere  there  were  never  wantinc;  those  who  taught, 
amidst  sui-rounding-  antipathies,  the  lessons  of  liberty  and 
of  wisdom.  Moreover,  I  should  be  the  first  to  assert  that, 
while  the  main  propelling  force  has  come  from  beneath, 
such  a  force  cannot  in  questions  of  reconstruction  be  self- 
directing,  and  that  there  has  remained  for  the  leisured 
classes  the  performance  of  a  service  in  shaping,  guiding, 
modifying  the  great  currents  of  conviction,  sympathy,  and 
will  which  has  been  secondary  but  yet  invaluable. 

10.  We  should  remember  that  our  religion  itself  did  not 
take  its  earlier  root,  or  find  its  primitive  home,  in  the  minds 
of  kings,  philosophers,  and  statesmen.  Not  many  rich,  not 
many  noble  were  called.  The  wisdom  and  the  culture 
were  mostly  plotting  against  our  Lord,  while  the  common 
people  heard  Him  gladly.  But  the  regenerating  forces  of 
the  Gospel  made  their  way  from  the  base  to  the  summit 
of  society ;  and  the  highest  thought  and  intellect  of  man, 
won  with  time  to  the  noble  service,  hired  as  it  were  at 
the  sixth,  ninth,  and  eleventh  hour,  wrought  hard  and 
with  effect  to  develop,  defend,  and  consolidate  the  truth. 
Paradox  it  may  seem  to  be,  but  fact  it  is,  that  the 
immense  advantages  which  leisure  and  learning  have 
conf(;rred  are  largely  neutralised,  and  in  some  cases 
utterly  outweighed,  by  the  blinding  influences  of  a  subtler, 
deeper,  and  more  comprehensive  selfishness : — 

«  E  poi  r  affetto  1'  intelletto  Icga."  * 

11.  The  Heply,  in  one  of  its  most  dashing  portions, 
observes  f  that  I  give  reasons  for  the  enfranchisement  of  the 

*  Dante,  'ParaJiso,'  xiii.  117.  f  F.  H.  pp.  7oG-7. 


LAST    WORDS    OX    THE    COUJTTY    FR.VNCniSE.  181 

peasant,  wliich  only  touch  liim  s^o  far  as  ho  forms  part  of  the 
gemis  homo.  This  is  as  true  with  respect  to  some  of  the 
reasons  which  I  have  given  as  it  is  untrue  with  respect  to 
others.  I  do  believe,  and  have  very  h)ng  ago  publicly 
professed  a  belief,  in  that  matter,  which  I  desire  to  make 
at  least  intelligible,  perhaps  in  some  cases  even  accept- 
able, to  others.  That  those  who  contribute  to  the  pur- 
poses of  a  society  should  share  its  powers,  is  almost  an 
axiom  in  the  foundation  of  a  voluntary  institution.  What 
I  hold  as  to  the  larger  combination  of  men  in  political 
society  is,  not  that  it  is  an  axiom,  but  that  there  is  a 
certain  amount  of  presumption  iji  its  favour.  Such  a 
presumption  may  be  liable  to  be  set  aside  by  counter- 
pleas,  as  in  the  cases  of  women,  minors,  paupers,  cri- 
minals, and  so  forth ;  but  it  exists,  and  it  supplies  not 
the  case,  but  the  inception  of  the  ease,  for  enfranchise- 
ment. Nor  does  this  presumption  of  policy  merely  em- 
brace what  is  due  from  the  society  to  the  individual ;  it 
contemplates  quite  as  much  what  the  individual  can 
su]i])ly  to  the  society  in  point  of  vigour  and  cohesion.  It 
surely  seems  difficult  to  deny  that  vigour  and  cohesion 
will  be  greater,  where  all  the  parts  can  be  thoroughly 
welded  into  the  working  machinery,  than  where  a  pro- 
portion, and  a  large  propoi'tion,  of  them,  remaining  out- 
side it,  are  borne  along  by  it  as  so  much  dead  weight. 
Augmentation  of  vital  power  in  the  State  is  what  every 
wise  and  good  citizen  sliould  desire.  The  more  closely, 
and  the  more  largely,  the  power  of  human  will,  aifec- 
tions,  and  understanding  can  be  placed  in  association 
wuth  the  maiiispinngs  of  the  State,  the  greater  Avill 
be  that  augmentation.  Enfranchisement  tends  to  attain 
this  end ;  tlierefore  enfranchisement  is  presumably  to  bo 
desired. 


182  LAST   WOEDS    ON    THE   COUNTY    FRANCHISE. 

12.  But  presumption  is  not  proof,  and  it  may  be  over- 
powered  by  evidence  and  counter-argument.     What  sort 
of  evidence,  and  what  sort  of  argument,  docs  the  Reply 
adduce  ?     It  makes  no  appeal  to  British  experience ;  it 
does  not  attempt  to  show  that,  in  so  much  as  a  single 
instance,  the  constituencies  based  upon  household  suffrage 
have  made  one  solitary  attempt   at   aggression   on  that 
minority,  composed  of  the  educated  and  the  wealthy,  for 
whose  perilous  condition  it  is  so  full  of  alarm  and  of 
compassion.     It  alleges  the  risks  we  run  from  the  old  and 
the  rich,  the  danger  of  a  gerontocracy  and  a  ploutocracy : 
whereas,    to   make   its   argument    good,    it   should   have 
shown  the  imminence  of  a  ptochocracy.     Whatever  the 
poor  might  be  accused  of  meaning,  surely  the  old  will  not 
legislate  in  the  direction  of  temerity,  nor  the  rich  send 
forth  the  mandate  of  their  own   spoliation.     It  waives, 
indeed,  the  argument  of  the  "precipice";  and  this  is  so 
far  a  gain.     But  alack !    the   old  hobgoblins,  instead  of 
being  consigned  to  ignominious  oblivion,  are  dressed  out 
in  new  costumes,   drawn  from  that  inexhaustible  store 
of   glittering    and    imposing    "properties"    which    every 
theatre   where    political  pieces   are   in   use   can   supply. 
My  presumptive  and  preliminary  pleas   have  been  sup- 
ported by  appeals  to  our  experience  since  1832  and  since 
18(57  :  by  tlie  character  and  ideas  of  the  English  people, 
which  do  not  menace  our  institutions,  but  are  in  close 
and  willing  harmony  with  them ;  by  showing  that  it  is 
caprice,   and  not  principle,   which   gives  to  one  peasant 
A\liat  it  witbholds  from  another,  and  witliholds  from  one 
artisan   what  it  gives  to   auotlier.     I  must  add  tbat  all 
this  huckstering   and  haggling  upon  what  the   hagglers 
and  hucksterers  themselves  know  is  certain  to  be  done, 
though  it  may  teach  the  enfranchised  to  value  enfrau- 


LAST    WUUDS    ON    TUi;    COL'XTl'    rUAKCUISK.  183 

chiscmcnt  more  higlily  because  tliey  will  luive  to  struggle 
for  it,  yet  must  also  tend  to  diminish  confidence  in  the 
governing  classes,  if  not  to  induce  new  misgivings  as  to 
their  good  faith. 

13.  So  far  I  have  dwelt  in  the  main  on  the  mode  in 
which  the  arguments  for  the  extension  arc  dealt  with  by 
the  lleply.  I  now  f earch  for  the  substantive  reasons  which 
it  advances*  in  bar  of  the  inevitable  concession.  Only  let 
me  first  observe  that  if  it  is  not  only  inevitable,  but 
known  to  be  inevitable — and  the  lleply  gives  no  sign  of 
being  without  this  knowledge — I  should  have  thought  it 
to  be  eminently  for  the  interest  of  those,  who  may  share 
its  views,  to  grant  what  they  have  got  to  grant  with  as 
much  grace  as  possible,  rather  than  to  bless  only  under 
visible  compulsion,  and  with  the  wiy  mouth  and  angry 
tones  of  cursing. 

14.  The  "  reasons,"  then,  are  these.  There  is  no  "  in- 
tolerable evil "  now  felt,  compelling  us  to  change.  Again, 
the  new  electors  may,  if  united,  throw  the  old  into  a 
hopeless  minority  ;  and  thej-  may  readily  so  unite,  because 
they  are  homogeneous.  This  change  is  not  even  sought 
by  them :  it  is  thrust  into  their  hands.  No  instance  can 
be  shown  of  a  country  which  is  flourishing,  happy,  and 
contented,  where  the  vote  is  given  to  adult  males  gene- 
rally. And  though  the  anticipations  of  danger,  in  which 
the  lleply  indulges,  may  be  "  extreme  cases,"  yet  it 
claims  to  "have  a  perfect  right  to  make  every  su])i)osi- 
tion  consistent  with  possibility."  Let  us  go  briefly 
through  these  pleas  in  tlieii-  order. 

15.  And,  beginning  in  a  generous  mood,  I  admit  that  the 
existing  state  of  things  "  does  not  for  the  community  at 


•  F.  R.  pp.  743-6. 


184  LAST    WOllDS    ON    THE    COUNTY    niANCHISE. 

large,  perhaps  not  for  tliose  immediately  concerned, 
constitute  what  is  commonly  called  an  intolerable  evil. 
But  surely  it  is  the  wisdom  of  States  to  redress  their  evils 
before  they  become  intolerable,  and  their  folly  to  wait  for 
that  ripeness  of  calamity,  cum  nee  mala  ipsa  nee  eorum 
remedia  ferre  possunms.  It  was  not  the  sense  of  intoler- 
able evil  that  carried  the  first  Reform  Act ;  but  the 
"sentimental"  idea,  as  the  Reply  would  call  it,  that  an 
extreme  of  capricious  anomaly  was  bad,  that  capable  men 
were  excluded  from  the  franchise,  and  that  their  admis- 
sion would  strengthen  and  consolidate  the  State.  Our 
taxation  was  not  intolerable,  when  Mr.  Lowe  himself  so 
largely  reduced  it ;  nor  our  system  of  popular  education, 
when  he  vitally  modified  and  profoundly  invigorated  it, 
by  shifting  its  central  principle  from  prescriptions  to 
results. 

16.  But  the  new  electors  would  be  so  numerous  as  to 
throw  the  old  into  a  "  hopeless  minority."  I  liad  pointed 
out  that  the  very  same  objection  had  applied  to  all  our 
enfranchisements.  Eveiy  great  enlargement  downwards 
has  brought  in  a  number  exceeding  that  of  the  former  pos- 
sessors of  political  power.  True,  says  the  Reply ;  but 
why  exaggerate  this  "natural  defect  of  representative 
government  "  ?*  Here  is  as  pure  a  petitio  principii  as  the 
annals  of  illogic  (to  coin  the  word  for  the  occasion)  can 
supply.  Tf  the  admission  of  these  new-fledged  majorities 
dislocates  or  saps  the  fabric  of  the  Constitution,  then 
indeed  their  numerical  force  is  the  "  natural  defect  of 
representative  govurnment."  But  experience,  to  which 
the  Reply  here  and  there  just  purports  to  off'er  a  lip- 
service  tliat  in  heart  it  withdraws,  has  shown  us  that 

•  F.  R.  p.  739. 


LAST   WORDS    ON    THE    COUXTY    FRANCHISE.  185 

these  admissions  have  not  dislocated  or  sapped  the  State, 
but  have  also  greatly  consolidated  what  tlicy  had  first 
greatly  enlarged.  "Broadening  downward"  the  walls, 
they  have  made  the  structure  harder  to  overthrow.  This 
"  natural  defect "  has  up  to  the  present  time  been  found  no 
defect  at  all,  but  a  source  of  strength  and  peace,  and  a 
guarantee  of  permanence,  and  therefore  more  like  a  natural 
virtue. 

17.  But  then,  unlike  other  classes,  this  class  is  "a 
homogeneous  class,"  and  therefore  it  can  readily  unite. 
Why  and  in  what  sense  is  labour  homogeneous  ?  Is  there 
no  homogeneity  in  the  instinct  of  property?  In  that 
instinct,  which  may  be  "inert  and  timid"  indeed  in  pro- 
moting some  kinds  of  change,  because  it  is  already  so  well- 
to-do  ;  but  which  is  lynx-eyed,  sensitive,  and  astute  beyond 
all  others,  in  detecting,  and  in  promoting  or  obstructing  as 
the  case  may  be,  what  touches  its  own  peculiar  interests. 
Any  political  union  of  the  labouring  masses  can  only  be 
brought  about  by  sacrifices  of  time,  which  to  them  are  sacri- 
fices of  to-morrow's  bread ;  but  the  leisured  classes  have 
their  hours  and  days  much,  som(>tinu\s  a  great  deal  too 
much,  at  their  free  di^sposal.  Probably  there  is  no  public 
man  among  us  of  Mr.  Lowe's  standing,  or  of  even  a  tenth 
part  of  his  experience,  who  has  been  thrown  so  little  into 
contact  with  the  labouring  classes.  "We  must  all  regret  it. 
Had  it  been  otherwise,  it  would  have  been  better  certainly 
for  them,  and  possibly  for  him.  This  homogeneity  is  an 
idol  that  he  has  set  up,  of  which  not  the  feet  only  but  the 
limbs  and  head  are  of  clay,  and  the  brain  of  I  know  not 
what.  Between  the  Irish  ;ind  the  blnglish  (luartcrs  of  our 
towns,  between  the  skilled  and  the  \inskillcd  labourer, 
between  the  rural  peasant  and  the  op])idan  artisan,  be- 
tween the  political  parties  into  which  these  ai'e  divided, 


186  LAST   WOKDS    OX    THE    COUNTY    FEANCHISE. 

and  again  between  these  and  numbers  even  of  literary  and 
professional  men,  there  is,  indeed,  the  tie  of  a  common 
predicate  :  they  live  by  their  work,  and  not  on  their 
means.  But  homogeneity  has  never  yet,  except  in  1831-2, 
made  the  labourers,  even  of  the  towns,  unite.  And  then 
they  united  not  for  themselves  but  for  others.  Why,  then, 
is  this  dream  of  hostile  and  selfish  union  between  them 
and  the  far  more  variant  population  of  the  country  to 
frighten  us  from  our  propriety  ? 

18.  The  Reply,  however,  says  they  do  not  want  the 
suffrage ;  you  are  thrusting  it  upon  them.  It  is  the  old 
story.  When  the  voice  of  a  petitioner  is  calm  and  low,  we 
cannot  hear  it.  When  it  is  full  and  loud,  then  we  "  must 
not  yield  to  intimidation."  The  Keply,  as  usual,  dispenses 
with  the  evidence  on  one  side,  and  excludes  it  on  the 
other.  I  cannot  wonder  that  it  produces  none  to  su.stain 
the  dictum ;  for  there  is  none.  But  on  the  other  side,  are 
there  no  "agitators,"  who  are  "not  to  be  ducked"?  Is 
there  not  a  Press  that  gives  utterance  to  the  voice  of 
Labour,  and  is  not  that  utterance  pretty  plain  ?  Arc  there 
not  ti'om  year  to  year  great,  though  perfectly  peaceable, 
meetings,  attended,  and  tliat  even  from  a  distance,  by 
thousands  who  can  ill  afford  it?  Has  not  Exeter  Hall 
been  filled  Ijy,  and  in  the  interest  of,  the  rural  labourers,  last 
season,  under  tlic  presidency  of  Mr.  Bright  ?  There  are 
even  now  at  least  two  members  of  Parliament  who  are,  in 
a  special  sense,  the  representatives  of  the  working  men ; 
and  their  voice  is  in  utter  contradiction  to  the  assurances 
so  confidently  given  by  the  member  for  the  University  of 
London. 

19.  And  now  as  to  the  demand  tliat  is  made  on  us  for  an 
instance  of  a  country  flourishing  and  contented  where  the 
suffrage  is  general.      Were  we  to  refer  to  a  small  country, 


LAST   WORDS    ON    THE    COUNTY    FRANCniSE.  187 

the  answer  would  not  unfairly  be  that  we  could  not  argue 
from  it  to  a  large  one.  Let  us  turn,  then,  as  the  Reply 
turns,  to  America.  And  wliat  is  here  tiie  inipeacliment '? 
First,  a  sti'ike,  M'hich  was  not  comparable  in  extent  to 
Bonie  English  strikes,  under  the  ten-pound  suffrage,  within 
the  memoiy  of  our  own  generation  ;  and  which  has  ended. 
Secondly,  a  civil  war  brought  about,  strangely  enough,  by 
the  action  of  those  among  the  States  associated,  in  wliich 
the  right  of  representation,  belonging  to  the  popTdations 
numerically,  was,  under  the  slave  system,  given  over  ex- 
clusively to  the  whites.  In  the  North  the  war  never  was 
a  question  of  class.  All  classes  were  alike  intent  upon  it : 
and  the  Reply,  which  dares  all  that  can  be  dared  by  those 
of  women  born,  does  not  make  bold  to  state  that  if  the 
suffrage  had  been  limited  after  its  own  heart,  the  limita- 
tion would  have  made  the  smallest  difference.  What,  on 
the  other  hand,  can  America  say  for  her  Constitution  ? 
That,  througliout  her  vast  territoiy,  there  is  not  a  man 
who  is  not  loyal  to  it.  That,  in  her  legislation,  the  public 
interest  is  always  preferred  to  th(!  small  interests  of  class ; 
yet  tliat  under  it  all  classes  live  in  habitual  harmony. 
Tliat,  ^\•hatever  may  be  said  of  the  repulsion  of  tlu;  best 
citizens  from  public  life,  there  is  no  State  in  the  world  the 
affairs  of  which,  foreign  and  domestic,  ai'e  transacted  Avith 
an  ability  more  effective  ;  perhaps  we  in  England  liave 
reason  to  say,  more  drastic.  That,  in  its  liour  of  agony, 
that  Constitution  was  put  under  a  strain  at  the  least  as 
severe  as  any  recorded  in  history,  and  that  it  came  through 
that  strain  unhurt.  And  this,  though  America  does  not 
possess  by  any  means  the  same  advantages  which  we 
hajjpily  enjoy,  in  the  recollections  of  history,  in  the  land- 
marks of  usage,  and  in  the  lessons  of  tradition. 

20.   Still  less  hapi)y,  if  less  happy  there  can  be,  is  the 


188  LAST   WORDS    ON    THE    COUNTY    FEANCDISE. 

reference  to  France.  For  in  that  country  we  have  lately 
seen  order  menaced,  and  a  Constitution  violently  strained, 
by  those  who  sought  to  escape  from  the  verdict  of  the 
extended  suffrage;  but  on  the  other  hand,  with  a  rare 
self-command  and  a  noble  temperance,  that  order  kept  in 
safety,  and  that  Constitution  in  balance,  by  the  advocates 
of  wide  public  liberty.  After  weeks  of  agonising  suspense, 
at  length  the  end  has  come.  IN'ot  a  hand  was  raised  to 
strike,  even  for  freedom;  not  a  word  was  spoken,  that 
could  stir  even  the  least  patient  into  action  ;  and  France, 
rich  in  every  other  distinction,  but  long  so  slow  to  make 
ground  in  her  political  education,  has  achieved  a  bloodless 
victory  as  remai-kable,  in  the  peaceful  annals  of  the  world, 
as  the  most  splendid  of  all  her  successes  on  the  battle- 
field can  ever  be  in  military  history.  With  the  bravery 
of  a  defeated  Osman  Pasha,  the  head  of  the  State  has 
frankly  owued  the  facts,  and  has  promised,  in  his  message 
to  the  Legislature,  that  the  end  of  this  crisis  "shall  be  tiie 
starting-point  of  a  new  era,  and  that  all  the  public  powers 
shall  co-operate  in  promoting  its  development." 

21.  Finally,  the  Keply  claims  "a  perfect  right  to  make 
every  supposition  consistent  with  possibility."  A  claim, 
which  might  give  a  meditative  man  much  food  for  thought. 
In  the  first  place,  if  sauce  for  the  goose  it  is  sauce  for  the 
gander ;  and  every  supposition  consistent  with  possibility 
may  as  reasonably  be  made  in  the  interest  of  an  extended 
enfranchisement.  Let  us  assume,  however,  that  it  is  good ; 
good  on  botli  sides.  But  both  the  author  of  the  lleply  and 
I  have  been  taught  at  Oxford  that  probable  evidence  is 
the  guide  of  life  ;  the  only  guide  Avliich  it  commonly 
affords.  I  wish,  therefore,  that  the  lieply,  wliicli  lays 
claim  to  an  eminently  practical  character,  had  informed 
us  how,  under  this  licence,  on  each  side  of  disputed  ques- 


LAST   WOKDS    ON    THE    COTJNTT   FEANCHISE.  189 

tions,  to  make  "  every  supposition  consistent  with  possi- 
bility," the  business  of  life  can  be  carried  on.  Let  us 
apply  it  in  a  few  cases.  A  wife  may  betray;  therefore  no 
one  should  nuirry.  A  friend  may  deceive  ;  let  us  re- 
nounce all  friends.  A  coachman  may  break  my  neck  ;  I 
never  will  drive  out.  A  cook  may  poison  me ;  I  will 
live  upon  blackberries  and  acorns.  A  standing  army  may 
put  down  liberty  ;  let  not  the  House  of  Commons  vote  a 
man.  Xor  will  it  avail,  in  the  interests  of  the  lleply,  to 
limit  this  licence  of  extravagant  hypothesis  to  cases  where 
the  evil  is  grave,  and  the  position  defenceless  ;  no  evil  is 
graver  to  a  nation  than  the  extinction  of  its  freedom  :  the 
wealthy  class  cannot  be  more  defenceless  against  the 
ravages  of  an  invading  peasantry  than  each  member  of  it 
is,  when,  without  a  qualm,  once,  twice,  or  even  thrice  a 
day  he  sits  down  to  table,  against  his  cook.  AVhy  does 
not  the  Reply  adopt  at  once  the  outspoken  language  of 
Henry  the  Eighth,  who  addressed  his  peasantry  as  "but 
brutes  and  inexpert  folk,"  and  say  to  Lincolnshire 
labourers  now  what  that  very  frank  sovereign  said  to 
them,  as  Mr.  Bright*  tells  us,  in  1537  :  "  How  presump- 
tuous are  ye,  the  rude  commons  of  one  shire,  and  that 
one  of  the  most  brute  and  beastly  of  the  whole  realm  "  ? 

22.  The  truth  is,  the  greatest  of  all  the  differences 
between  us  is  in  the  point  of  view  from  which  we  exaniino 
and  aiiproach  the  question  of  the  sull'rage.  For  me,  enfran- 
chisement, in  the  absence  of  a  reasonable  bar,  is  a  good ; 
and  is  only  to  be  foregone  upon  proof  that  it  will  be  accom- 
panied and  outweighed  by  some  evil,  incident  to  the  form 
in  which  it  is  proposed.  For  those  who  share  the  senti- 
ments of  the  E-ply,  if  I  judge  them  light,  it  is  an  e\il, 


*  Bright's  English  History,  ii.  406. 


190  LAST   "WOEDS    ON    THE   COIJKTY   FRANCHISE. 

only  to  be  encountered  for  the  sake  of  escaping  some 
other  and  yet  greater  evil.  I  look  to  it,  as  angmenting 
the  sum  total  of  forces,  enlisted  in  the  nation's  in- 
terest, and  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  State  :  they, 
as  multiplying  the  risks  and  shocks,  to  ■which  all  human 
institutions  are  exposed.  Their  idea  of  a  Constitution 
is,  that  it  is  a  fortress  to  be  gallantly  defended  by 
a  few  ;  and  their  idea  of  a  people,  that  it  is  a  vast 
army  posted  round  about  with  hostile  intentions,  which  it 
is  a  duty  and  an  honour  to  resist,  as  long  as  resistance 
can  be  maintained.  We  find  it  easy  to  decry  the  political 
ideas  of  the  ancient  Greeks ;  but  those  cherished  among 
us  are  less  consistent,  and  in  some  respects  less  rational. 
They  contemplated  with  acquiescence  or  approval  the  evil 
institution  of  slavery  ;  but  they  considered,  as  the  English 
of  a  former  time  considered,  that  every  freeman  should 
have  a  share  in  the  determination  of  the  laws  by  which  he 
was  to  be  governed.  The  spirit  of  our  religion,  truly  popular 
as  it  is,  has  effaced  from  our  system  the  very  name  and 
idea  of  the  slave  ;  but  what  if  the  selfishness  of  class, 
inhering  in  our  politics,  has  prevented  us  from  giving  to 
the  idea  of  freedom  that  which  is  its  consummation,  and 
to  the  character  of  the  citizen,  in  the  humbler  orders,  the 
amplitude  of  which  it  is  susceptible? 

At  any  rate  Ave  have  this  undeniable  fact  full  in  our 
view :  we  withhold  the  boon  of  the  franchise  from  that 
half  of  our  labouring  householders  which,  if  a  distinction 
must  be  di'awn,  is  really  and  obviously  the  safer  of  the  two. 
We  withhold  it,  perliaps  with  some  musty  precedents  to 
sustain  us,  fetched  from  distant  ages  and  from  foreign 
lauds,  but  not  so  miich  as  one  of  them  carrying  the 
stamp  of  true  British  origin.  Failing  to  find  foothold  in 
our  history,  or  within  the  wide  spaces  of  the  probable, 


LAST   TV'OEDS    ON    THE    COTJXTT   FRANCHISE.  191 

we  take  refuge  in  the  shadowy  regions,  domos  vacuns  et 
inania  regna,  of  all  that  is  "  consistent  with  possibility." 

23.  'While  this  claim  is  being  made,  and  while  the  pre- 
sent paper  is  being  written,  Mr.  Joseph  Arch  appears  as  a 
fellow-contributor  to  this  Re\-iew,  and  states,  in  vigorous 
language,  the  grievance  of  the  rural  labourer.  He  feels 
it  keenly,  and  he  puts  it  strongly.  He  is  not  likely  then 
to  understate,  upon  this  arena  of  free  speech,  the  Avants 
and  wishes  of  his  clients.  And  what  are  the  portentous 
demands  he  makes  ?  More  air,  more  water,  more  dwell- 
ings, weather-proof  and  accommodated  to  the  purposes  of 
decency  and  vii'tue  ;  yet  even  these  by  no  abstract  or 
communistic  standard,  only  by  the  extension  to  the 
country  at  large,  which  he  thinks  the  rural  franchise 
would  secure,  of  the  provisions  already  applied  to  towns. 
One,  and  one  only,  political  proposal,  indeed,  he  makes : 
it  is  the  alteration  of  the  present  laws  touching  primo- 
geniture and  entail ;  but,  in  this  alarming  pretension, 
what  if  it  should  be  remarked  that  Mr.  Lowe  agrees 
with  him  ? 

24.  I  earnestly  hope  that  these  reiterated  accusations 
of  class-purpose,  hostile  to  society  in  general,  against  the 
county  householders,  may  once  for  all  be  abandoned  : 
were  it  only  for  the  reason,  that  they  might  lead  to  retali- 
ation. It  is  not  wise  to  provoke  the  examination  of  the 
history  of  our  Statute  Book,  with  a  vicAV  to  ascertain  and 
enumerate  the  instances  where  the  narrow  and  obli(jue 
purposes  of  class  have  been  pursued  by  Tarliaments  in  the 
choice  of  which  the  upper  orders  had  it  all  their  own  way. 
Let  this  question  be  closed  before  the  adverse  critic 
unrolls  the  story,  under  the  farmer's  eyes,  of  the  substi- 
tution of  a  malt-tax  for  the  older  services  charged  directly 
on  the  land ;  or  invites  the  attention  of  the  labourer  to 


192  XAPT    WOBDS   ON    THE    COXTNTY   FRANCHISE. 

the  course  of  legislation,  since  the  Eevolution  as  well  as 
before  it,  upon  wages,  upon  combinations,  upon  crime, 
upon  army  and  navy  discipliue,  upon  bread.  Let  bygones 
be  bygones.  Eut  bygones  they  will  not  be,  if  ugly 
phantoms  are  persistently  sent  into  a  field  from  which  it 
would  be  too  easy  finally  to  drive  them  by  an  army  of  too 
solid  and  too  sad  realities.  I  have  no  dreams  of  a  golden 
age  ;  there  will  always  be  more  than  enough  to  deplore, 
more  than  enough  to  mend.  But  let  us  at  least  thrust 
aside  the  needless  difficulty  of  wanton  crimination ;  aud 
let  us  labour,  in  patience  and  good- will  towards  all,  to 
handle  and  direct  for  the  best  the  movement  of  our 
time. 


VII 

POSTSCEIPTUM  OX  THE  COUNTY  FRANCHISE.* 

1.  My  estimate  of  the  comparative  value  of  the  popular 
judgment  in  politics  has,  to  use  an  expression  of  Milton's, 
"  stumbled  some  "  ;  and  minds  in  a  state  of  apprehension 
are  apt  to  magnify  the  thing  itself,  -whicli  has  caused  tluir 
alarm,  as  well  as  the  consequences  which  they  expect  to 
flow  from  it.  But  I  can  hardly  regret  that  some  limita- 
tions have  been  for  a  moment  forgotten,  if  the  result  has 
been  to  produce  a  discussion,  in  which  every  contributor 
lias  thrown  new  liglit  upon  the  case.  It  is,  perhaps, 
natural  that  I  should  prefer  to  all  others  the  very  able 
papers  of  Mr.  Hutton  and  Mr.  Harrison.  To  these  I  am 
indebted  for  illustration  and  defence  much  better  than  any 
I  could  myself  have  supplied  ;  but  I  will  give  in  few  words 
my  view  of  the  position  up  to  which  competing,  but  also 
converging,  efforts  have  brought  the  general  subject. 

2.  It  will  now  be  clearly  understood  that  we  arc  not 
debating  whether  government  ought  to  be  carried  on  by 
the  people  rather  than  by  the  leisured  classes.  In  this 
country,  at  least,  the  people  themselves  would  be  the  very 
first  to  reject  such  a  proposal,  if  any  one  could  be  found 


*  Reprinted  extract  from  Tlie  Nineteenth  Centnri/  for  July  1878, 
Art.  XI.,  "A  Modern  Symi)osium."  [It  was  an  inconsistency  to  write 
this  Postscript  after  my  'Last  Words.'  But  the  soft  and  silken  cord, 
with  which  the  Editor  of  The  Nineteenth  Century  guides  his  con- 
tr.butors,  usually  draws  them  whithersoever  he  will. — W.  E.  G.,  1878. J 

I.  0 


194  POSTSCRIPTTJM    OX    THE    COUIfTT   FRANCHISE. 

to  make  it.  J^eitlier  lias  it  been  contended  that  tlieir 
powers  of  political  action  are  superior  to  those  of  the 
limited  portions  of  society,  which  possess  such  vast 
advantages  in  leisure,  tradition,  wealth,  hereditary  apti- 
tude, and  every  kind  of  opportunity.  Nor  even,  as 
might  be  hastily  inferred  from  the  succinct  title  of  this 
literary  crcmos,  that  "the  popular  judgment  in  'all  kinds 
of  politics  is  more  just  than  that  of  the  higher  orders." 
The  people  are  of  necessity  unfit  for  the  rapid,  multi- 
farious action  of  the  administrative  mind ;  unfurnished 
with  the  ready,  elastic,  and  extended,  if  superficial, 
knowledge  which  the  work  of  government,  in  this  country 
beyond  all  others,  demands  ;  destitute  of  that  acquaint- 
ance with  the  world,  with  the  minds  and  tempers  of  men, 
with  the  arts  of  occasion  and  opportunity,  in  fact,  with 
the  whole  doctrine  of  circumstance,  which  lying  outside 
the  matter  of  political  plans  and  propositions,  neverthe- 
less frequently  determines  not  the  policy  alone,  but  the 
duty  of  propounding  them.  T^o  people  of  a  magnitude  to 
be  called  a  nation  has  ever,  in  strictness,  governed  itself; 
the  utmost  which  appears  to  be  attainable,  under  the  con- 
ditions of  human  life,  is  that  it  should  choose  its  governors, 
and  that  it  should,  on  select  and  rare  occasions,  bear 
directly  upon  their  action.  History  shows  how  seldom 
even  this  point  has  in  any  considerable  manner  been 
attained.  It  is  written  in  legible  characters,  and  with  a 
pen  of  iron,  on  the  rock  of  human  destiny,  that  within 
the  domain  of  practical  politics  the  people  must  in  the 
main  be  passive. 

3.  It  would  be  well  if  this  were  all.  But  I  must  make 
a  further  admission.  That  teachableness  for  which  most 
of  th(!  writers  in  this  series  give  them  credit  will  on  some 
occasions,  and  in  some  persons  on  all  occasions,  degenerate 


POSTSOnTPTUM    ON    THE    COFNTT    FRANCHISE.  105 

into,  or  be  replaced  by,  a  degree  of  subserviency.  The 
greatest,  apparently,  of  all  the  difficulties  in  establishing 
true  popular  government  is  the  difficulty — it  should,  per- 
haps, be  said  the  impossibility — of  keeping  the  national 
pulse  in  a  state  of  habitual  and  healthy  animation.  At 
certain  junctures  it  may  be  raised  even  to  a  feverish  heat. 
Qiut  these  accesses  are,  in  all  countries,  short  and  rare  ; 
they  come  and  go  like  the  pas.sing  wave.  The  movement 
is  below  par  a  hundred  times  for  once  that  it  is  above. 
The  conditions  of  life  bear  lightly  upon  the  few,  but  hard 
upon  the  many.  To  the  many,  politics  of  an  operative 
quality  are  in  ordinary  times  an  impossibility,  in  the  most 
favourable  times  a  burden;  but  to  the  few,  with  their 
wealth  and  leisure,  they  are  an  easy  and  healthful  exercise, 
nay  often  an  entertainment  and  even  a  luxuiy,  and  a 
seasoning  of  life.  At  unexciting  seasons,  the  member  of 
the  upper  or  middle  class  will  usually  cleave  to  his  party. 
But  I  apprehend  that  the  ties  of  party,  as  distinct  from 
those  of  sympathy,  opinion,  and  personal  confidence  iu 
leaders,  are  less  felt  among  the  masses  than  among  those 
in  su]H'rior  circumstances.  The  present  weighs  more 
heavily  upon  them  ;  and  they  must  have  as  a  rule,  other 
circumstances  being  equal,  less  energy  available  either  for 
the  anticipation  of  the  future,  or  the  retention  of  the  past. 
Upon  the  whole  then,  in  the  absence  of  truly  great  and 
stirring  subjects,  the  working  man,  ov popolano,  Avill  very 
frequently  come  to  the  poll  with  his  mind  in  a  rather 
negative  state ;  and  though,  setting  aside  the  few  baser 
nioml)ers  of  the  class,  he  would  not  entertain  the  offer  of 
an  undisguised  bribe,  there  is  a  disguised  and  standing 
bribe,  which  may  be  said  commonly  to  lie  in  the  hands  of 
superiors  in  station,  especially  if  this  superiority  be  com- 
bined with  any  personal  contact  invohing  mutual  interests. 

0  2 


196  POSTSCEIPTUM    ON   THE    COUNTY   FEANCHISE. 

So  that  we  cannot  be  surprised  if  the  mere  desire  to  please 
the  employer  or  the  landlord,  as  such,  steps  into  the 
vacant  or  lethargic  mind,  and,  for  the  purpose  of  directing 
the  vote,  stands  instead  of  the  reason  of  the  case.  This,  it 
will  be  observed,  is  a  mode  of  operation  quite  distinct  from 
legitimate  influence,  though  it  is  far  from  being  the  most 
illegitimate. 

4.  Again,  I  allow  it  to  be  possible  that  in  particular 
cases  the  mere  possession  of  the  suffrage  may  be  a  cause 
of  deterioration,  and  thus  of  relative  unfitness,  to  the 
possessor.  The  superiority  of  the  popular  judgment  in 
politics,  so  far  as  it  is  superior,  is,  according  to  my  view, 
due  mainly  to  moral  causes,  to  a  greater  mental  integrity, 
which,  again,  is  greatly  owing  to  the  comparative  absence 
of  the  more  subtle  agencies  of  temptation.  But  the  work- 
ing man,  whom  Fortune  does  not  taint,  and  whom  it  is 
nobody's  interest  to  corrupt,  is  one  thing ;  the  working 
man  practised  upon,  courted,  flattered,  whether  by  the 
old-fashioned  arts  or  by  the  new-fangled  Conservative 
demagoguism  now  so  much  in  vogue,  is  another.  His 
little  bark  will  carry  no  great  breadth  of  canvas  ;  and  the 
puff"  of  factitious  adulation  will  act  upon  its  equilibrium 
like  a  squall.  Of  course  I  do  not  speak  of  those  select 
men  who,  as  Mr.  Harrison  has  so  well  shown,  are  the 
homogeneous  and  sympathising  standard-bearers  that 
Nature  has  elected,  and  stamped  with  her  own  indis- 
putable _^ai,  to  guide  the  working  community  from  witliin 
its  own  precinct.  I  speak  of  the  average  man,  when  sub- 
ject to  more  than  what  had  thus  far  been  his  average 
danger.  On  the  whole,  I  admit  freely  that  the  deductions 
from  the  benefit  of  popular  suffrage  are  varied  and  serious. 
But  what  we  are  now  contending  with  is  the  allegation 
that  it  is  not  a  benefit  at  all,  but  a  mischief. 


rosTSCEiPTnii  on  the  county  franchise.  197 

5.  To  point  the  issue  still  more  exactly,  let  me  say 
that  I  decline  to  widen  it,  as  Mr.  Lowe  would  have  me, 
hy  allowing  it  to  comprohoud  universal  suffrage.  The 
Apostle  said,  "  Knowing  the  terrors  of  the  Lord,  wo  per- 
suade men;"  and  Mr.  Lowe,  with  perfectly  warrantable 
tactics,  knowing  the  terrors  of  universal  suffrage,  seeks  to 
persuade  men  thereby.  "What  we  want  in  these  papers  is 
conviction  rather  than  persuasion.  I  therefore  put  aside 
universal  suffrage,  which,  without  doubt,  must  include 
some  elements  of  unimagined  horror,  elements  not  yet 
fully  developed,  because,  as  far  as  I  know,  it  differs  from 
household  suffrage  only  in  the  free  inclusion  of  lodgers, 
whether  belonging  to  the  family  or  otherwise.  I  have 
never  heard  of  an  attempt,  as  yet,  to  register  those  who 
sleep  under  the  dry  arches  of  Waterloo  Bridge.  Eut  let 
us  pass  by  the  subject,  as  one  too  dreadful  to  contem- 
plate, and  be  content  to  deal  with  the  original  matter 
of  debate — namely,  the  establishment  in  the  counties  of 
the  enfranchising  law  which,  ten  years  ago,  we  gave  to 
the  towns. 

6.  This  being  the  issue,  Mr.  Lowe  has,  in  the  middle  of 
his  short  paper,  stated  the  argument  fi'om  his  point  of 
view  with  his  usual  exactness.  He  says  the  rationale  is 
extremely  simple ;  and  so  far  I  agree  with  him.  His 
main  contention  is,  that  the  mcmb(!r  of  the  lower  class  is 
liable  to  all  the  sources  of  error  which  affect  the  member 
of  the  higher  class,  and  with  these  is  "  liable  to  many 
deceptions  from  which  the  other  is  exempt."  He  must 
take  most  of  his  opinions  at  second  hand,  and  "  his  chance 
of  being  riglit  depends  on  the  hands  into  which  he  may 
chance  to  fall."  And  Mr.  Lowe  thinks  it  a  strange  paradox 
to  maintain  (as  indeed  it  would  be  if  any  one  did  maintain 
it)  that  "  a  man  with  all  the  causes  of  error  incident  to  the 


198  POSTSCKIPTUM    ON   THE    COrNTT   PEANCHISE. 

■wisest,  and  several  more  peculiarly  his  own,  is  less  liable 
to  error  than  they."  "  Tlie  wisest,"  I  stop  to  observe,  mean 
the  richest ;  but  the  question  chiefly  at  issue  is  whether 
wealth,  together  with  its  accompaniments,  is  altogether 
entitled  to  this  commanding  and  conclusive  panegyric. 

7.  That  the  rich  have  vast  advantages,  I  am  among 
the  first  to  contend :  that  the  very  highest  and  noblest, 
because  most  fully  and  largely  developed,  specimens  of 
humanity  are  found  among  the  highest  class,  I  for  one 
believe.  But  they  too  have  their  mob,  as  well  as  their 
elect  and  favoured  specimens.  I  concede,  however,  to 
Mr.  Lowe,  without  hesitation  or  reluctance,  the  superiority 
of  their  intellectual  qualifications ;  not  universally,  for 
among  their  mob  there  are  many  exceptions,  but  as  a 
whole.  There  remains  behind  a  grave  inquiry,  to  which 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  opponents  generally  have  given 
very  insufiicient  heed.  It  is  whether  political  judgments 
are  formed  by  means  of  intellectual  qualifications  alone. 
For  if  there  be  another  element  which  helps  to  determine 
them  in  all  or  in  certain  cases,  it  may  then  prove  that  the 
entrance  of  that  element  into  the  case  may  disturb  and 
overset  what,  as  I  freely  admit,  would  otherwise  be  solid 
and  well-poised  computations. 

8.  Now  my  stand  has  been  taken  on  a  basis  of  fact,  which 
no  one  has  attempted  to  shake.  I  afiirm  that,  so  far  as 
we  know  the  facts,  and  Avith  a  possible  exception  or  two, 
the  popular  judgment  on  the  great  achievements  of  the 
last  half-century,  which  have  made  our  age  (thus  far)  a 
praise  among  the  ages,  has  been  more  just  and  true  than 
that  of  the  majority  of  the  higher  orders.  Mr.  Lowe 
alleges  that  these  have  been  the  trophies  of  "moderate" 
Liberalism.  Sometimes:  but  this  is  not  true  (for  example) 
of  the  first  lleform  Act,  nor  of  Negro  Emancipation,  nor 


rOSTSCKIPTUlI    ON    THE    COUXTl'    FEANCHISE.  193 

of  Com  Law  Eepcal,  nor  of  cheap  postage,  nor  of  relief  of 
the  ])ress  from  taxes,  nor  of  tlic  furtlicr  extension  of  the 
franchise,  nor  of  the  Abolition  of  Church  Rates,  nor  of  Irish 
disestablishment,  nor  of  the  Irish  Land  Act :  not  to  mention 
that  moderate  Liberalism,  except  on  the  occasions  when 
it  recalcitrates,  is  as  much  eschewed  by  the  Tories  as  the 
Liberalism  dubbed  immoderate.  So  that  my  proposition 
stands.  Can  Mr.  Lowe  fail  to  perceive  how  telling,  how 
grave  a  fact  this  is,  if  it  be  a  fact  at  all  ?  It  is  surely  one 
broad  enough  to  sustain  the  superstnicture  I  have  laid 
u])on  it,  which  is  simply  this :  that  now,  when  wc  have 
enfranchised  one  full  half  of  this  class,  which  felt  and 
judged  on  the  greatest  matters  so  much  more  soundly  than 
we  did,  and  that  half  the  more  questionable  of  the  two,  it 
will  not  be  well  to  withhold  the  corresponding  boon, 
demanded  by  eijuality,  by  growing  intelligence,  and  by 
unquestioned  docility,  from  the  other  moiety.  Indeed, 
until  this  great  basis  of  fact,  on  which  we  stand,  can  be 
shaken,  it  appears  to  me  that  we  might  be  warranted  in 
declining  to  adduce  argument  on  details,  and  might  sim])ly 
ask  our  opponents  to  present  their  proof  that  the  working 
population,  who,  to  say  the  very  least,  have  not  opposed 
the  good  and  great  measures  that  have  been  so  uniformly 
resisted  by  the  majority  of  the  higher  class,  ought  by 
rights  to  be  shut  out  from  the  franchise  which  that  higher 
class  enjoys. 

9.  I  have  indicated  that  it  is,  on  the  whole,  in  the  moral 
sphere  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  causes  of  a  superiority, 
which  is  within  its  own  limits  undeniable.  Moral  ele- 
ments of  character  are  as  true,  and  often  as  powerful  a 
factor,  in  framing  judgments  upon  matters  of  human  interest 
and  action  as  intellectual  forces.  But  there  is  anotlier 
element  in  the  question  not  less  vital  :  the   character  of 


200  rOSTSCRIPTUM    ON    THE   COUNTY    FRANCHISE. 

the  surroundings,  the  contiguous  objects  of  attraction  and 
repulsion,  the  beguiling  and  tempting  agencies  in  the  midst 
of  which  we  live.  Those  who  have  but  a  sufficiency  for  life 
set  a  less  value  perhaps  upon  it,  and  certainly  upon  its 
incidental  advantages,  than  persons  who  live  in  the  midst 
of  superfluities  varying  from  a  few  to  a  multitude  almost 
numberless.  These  superfluities  are  like  the  threads  that 
bound  down  Gulliver  to  the  soil ;  and  they  form  habits  of 
mind  which  at  length  pass  into  our  fixed  mental  and  moral 
constitution,  and  cease  to  form  objectsof  distinct  conscious- 
ness. If  it  be  true  that  wealth  and  ease  bring  with  them 
in  a  majority  of  cases  an  increased  growth  in  the  harden- 
ing crust  of  egotism  and  selfishness,  the  deduction  thereby 
made  from  the  capacity  of  right  judgment  in  large  and 
most  important  questions,  may  be  greater  than  the  addition 
which  leisure,  money,  and  opportunity  have  allowed. 

10.  I  touch  here  upon  deep  mines  of  truth,  never  yet 
explored,  nor  within  the  power  of  human  intelligence  to 
explore  fully,  though  we  are  taught  to  believe  in  an 
Eye  that  has  observed,  and  a  Mind  that  has  accurately 
registered  the  whole.  Even  in  the  present  twilight  of  our 
practical  and  moral  knowledge,  we  may  perceive,  by  every 
form  of  instance,  how  often  the  wisdom  of  love,  goodness, 
and  simplicity  wins,  even  in  the  races  of  this  world,  against 
the  wisdom  of  crafty  and  astute  self-seeking.  Even  more 
is  tliis  true  in  the  fields  of  open  thought  than  in  the  direct 
and  sharp  competitions  of  life.  In  questions  to  which  his 
budding  knowledge  reaches,  even  the  child  has  often  a 
more  serene  and  effective  sense  of  justice  thnn  a  gi'own 
man ;  and  a  partial  analogy  obtains  between  the  relations 
of  age  and  those  of  class.  History  affords,  I  think,  a  grand 
and  powerful  illustration  of  the  argument  in  the  cnse  of 
the  acceptance  of  Christianity;  which  acceptance  will  bo 


rosTSCRiPxrii  on  the  couxtt  fraxchise.  201 

arlmitted,  I  presume,  to  have  been  a  great  advance  upon 
the  road  of  trutli  and  of  human  welfare.  "Was  it  the 
wealthy  and  the  learned  who,  with  their  vast  advanta2;es, 
and  their  siipposed  exemption  from  special  sources  of  error, 
outstripped  their  humbler  fellow-creatures  in  bowing  their 
heads  to  the  authority  of  the  Gospel  ?  *  Did  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  or  did  shepherds  and  fishermen,  yield  the  first, 
most,  and  readiest  converts  to  the  Saviour  and  the  company 
of  His  apostles  ?  It  was  not  an  arbitrary  act,  for  there  ia 
no  such  act  of  the  Almighty  which  "hid  these  things 
from  the  wise  and  prudent  and  rcvi'aled  them  unto  ba])es." 
The  whole  code  of  our  Saviour's  teaching  on  the  condition 
of  rich  and  poor  with  reference  to  the  acceptance  of  moral 
truth  is  not  the  rhetoric  of  an  enthusiast,  nor  the  straitened 
philosophy  of  a  local  notable,  who  mistook  the  accidents  of 
one  time  and  place  for  principles  of  universal  knowledge. 
They  were  the  utterances  of  the  "Wisdom  that 

"  Lives  through  all  life,  extends  through  all  extent, 
Spreads  undivided,  operates  unspent. "f 

11.  There  was  not,  be  it  observed,  any  denial  in  the 
new  religion  of  the  intellectual  superiority,  which,  upon 
the  whole  or  in  the  majority  of  cases,  attends  upon  wealth 
and  leisure.  But  that  curtain  was  lifted  which,  wov{»n 
by  self-love,  hides  from  us  many  unpalatable  truths.  As 
the  barbarian,  with  his  undeveloped  organs,  sees  and 
hears  at  distances  which  the  senses  of  the  cultured  state 
cannot  overpass,  and  yet  is  utterly  deficient  as  to  fine 
details  of  sound  and  colour,  even  so  it  seems  that,  in 
judging  of  the  great  questions  of  policy  which  appeal  to 
the  primal  truths  and  laws  of  our  nature,  those  classes 


•  See  sup.  p.  180.  f  ^ope,  '  Essay  on  Man.' 


202  POSTSCEIPTUM    ON    THE    COUNTY    FRANCHISE. 

may  excel  who,  if  they  lack  the  opportunities,  yet  escape 
the  suhtle  perils  of  the  wealthy  state.  True  they  receive 
much  of  their  instruction  from  persons  of  the  classes 
above  them,  from  the  "minority  of  the  minority";  but 
this  in  no  way  mends  the  argument  on  behalf  of  the 
majority  of  the  minority,  who  habitually  reject,  as  it 
passes  by  their  doors,  that  teaching  which  the  men  of  the 
highways  and  the  hedges  as  commonly  are  eager,  or  ready, 
to  receive. 


YIII. 
KIN  BEYOND  SEA  * 


**Wlirn  TiOve  unites,  wide  space  divides  in  vain, 
Aud  bands  may  clasp  across  the  spreading  main." 


1.  It  is  now  nearly  half  a  century  since  the  works  of  De 
Tocqueville  and  De  Beaumont,  founded  upon  personal 
observation,  broujilit  the  institutions  of  the  United  States 
effectually  "within  the  circle  of  European  thought  and 
interest.  They  were  co-operators,  hut  not  upon  an  equal 
scale.  De  Beaumont  belongs  to  the  class  of  ordinary, 
thv^iigh  able,  writers :  De  Tocqueville  was  the  Burke  of 
his  age,  and  his  treatise  upon  America  may  well  be 
regarded  as  among  the  best  books  hitherto  produced  for 
the  political  student  of  all  times  and  countries. 

2.  But  higher  and  deeper  than  the  concern  of  the  old 
world  at  large  in  the  thirteen  colonies,  now  grown  into 
thirty-eight  States,  besides  eight  Territories,  is  the  special 
interest  of  England  in  their  condition  and  prospects. 

I  do  not  speak  of  political  controversies  between  them 
and  us,  which  are  happily,  as  I  trust,  at  an  end.  I  do 
not  speak  of  the  vast  contribution,  which,  from  year  to 
year,  through  the  ojieratious  of  a  colossal  trade,  each 
makes  to  the  wealth  and  comfort  of  the  other  :  nor  of  the 


•  Published  in  the  North  American  Review  for  September  1878. 
Republished  by  permission :  with  one  or  two  notes,  and  a  few  correc- 
tions, of  which  ;i  part  were  seut  to  the  Ixoview,  but  arrived  too  late. 


204  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

friendly  controversy,  which  in  its  own  place  it  mij^ht 
be  well  to  raise,  between  the  leanings  of  America  to  Pro- 
tectionism, and  the  more  daring  reliance  of  the  old  country 
upon  free  and  unrestricted  intercourse  with  all  the  world. 
jS'or  of  the  menace  which,  in  the  prospective  development 
of  her  resources,  America  offers  to  the  commercial  pre- 
eminence of  England.*  On  this  subject  I  will  only  say 
that  it  is  she  alone  who,  at  a  coming  time,  can,  and  pro- 
bably will,  wrest  from  us  that  commercial  primacy.  We 
have  no  title,  I  have  no  inclination,  to  murmur  at  the 
prospect.  If  she  acquires  it,  she  will  make  the  acquisi- 
tion by  the  right  of  the  strongest ;  but,  in  this  instance, 
the  strongest  means  the  best.  She  will  probably  become 
what  we  are  now,  the  head  servant  in  the  great  house- 
hold of  the  World,  the  employer  of  all  employed  ;  because 
her  service  will  be  the  most  and  ablest.  We  have  no 
more  title  against  her,  than  Venice,  or  Genoa,  or  Holland 
has  had  against  us.  One  great  duty  is  entailed  upon  us, 
which  we,  unfortunately,  neglect ;  the  duty  of  preparing, 
by  a  resolute  and  sturdy  effort,  to  reduce  our  public 
burdens,  in  preparation  for  a  day  when  we  shall  probably 
have  less  capacity  than  we  have  now  to  bear  them. 

3.  Passing  by  all  these  subjects,  with  their  varied  attrac- 
tions, I  come  to  another,  which  lies  within  the  tranquil 
domain  of  political  philosophy.  The  students  of  the 
future,  in  this  department,  will  have  much  to  say  in  the 
way  of  comparison  between  American  and  British  institu- 


* 


[This  topic  was  much  more  largely  handled  by  me  in  the  Financial 
Statement  which  I  delivered,  as  Chancellor  of  the  Hxcliequer,  on  May 
2,  186t).  I  recommend  attention  to  the  excellent  article  by  Mr. 
Henderson,  in  the  Contemporarii  Reiinv  for  October  1878:  and  I  agree 
with  the  author  in  being  disposed  to  think  that  the  protective  laws  of 
America  eflectually  bar  the  full  development  of  her  competing  power.— 
W.  E.  G.,  Nov.  6,  1878.] 


KIN    BEYOND    SEA.  20.5 

tions.  The  relationship  between  these  two  is  unique  in 
liistory.  It  is  always  interesting  to  trace  and  to  compare 
Constitutions,  as  it  is  to  compare  languapjcs  ;  especially  in 
such  instances  as  those  of  the  Greek  States  and  the  Italian 
Republics,  or  the  diversified  forms  of  the  feudal  system  in 
the  different  countries  of  Europe.  IJut  there  is  no  paralhd 
in  all  the  records  of  the  world  to  the  case  of  that  prolific 
British  mother,  who  has  sent  forth  her  iiiiiuincrahle 
children  over  all  the  earth  to  be  the  founders  of  half-a- 
dozen  empires.  She,  with  her  proji:eny,  may  almost  claim 
to  constitute  a  kind  of  Universal  Church  in  politics.  But, 
among  these  children,  there  is  one  whose  place  in  tlie 
world's  eye  and  in  history  is  superlative :  it  is  the 
Americen  Uepublic.  She  is  the  eldest  born.  She  has, 
taking  the  capacity  of  her  land  into  \-iew  as  well  as  its 
mere  measurement,  a  natural  base  for  the  greatest  con- 
tinuous empire  ever  established  by  man.  And  it  may  be 
well  here  to  mention  what  has  not  always  been  sufficiently 
observed,  that  the  distinction  between  continuous  empire;, 
and  empire  severed  and  dispersed  over  sea,  is  vital.  The 
development,  which  the  Uepublic  has  effected,  has  beeu 
unexampled  in  its  rapidity  and  force.  "While  other 
countries  have  doubled,  or  at  most  trebled,  their  popula- 
tion, she  has  risen,  duiing  one  single  century  of  freedom, 
in  round  numbers,  from  two  millions  to  forty-five.  As  to 
riches,  it  is  reasonable  to  establish,  from  the  decennial 
stages  of  the  progress  thus  far  achieved,  a  series  for  the 
future  ;  and,  reckoning  upon  this  basis,  T  suppose  that  the 
very  next  Census,  in  the  year  1880,  will  exhibit  her  to 
the  world  as  certainly  the  wealtliiest  of  all  the  nations. 
The  huge  figure  of  a  thousand  millions  sterling,  which 
may  be  taken  roundly  as  the  annual  income  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  has  been  reached  at  a   surprising  rate  ;  a  rate 


206  KIX    BEYOND    SEA. 

which  may  perhaps  be  best  expressed  by  saying  that,  if 
we  could  have  started  forty  or  fifty  years  ago  from  zero, 
at  the  rate  of  our  recent  annual  increment,  we  should  now 
have  reached  our  present  position.  But  while  we  have 
been  advancing  with  tliis  portentous  rapidity,  America  is 
passing  us  by  as  if  in  a  canter.  Yet  even  now  the  work 
of  searching  the  soil  and  the  bowels  of  the  territory,  and 
opening  out  her  enterprise  throughout  its  vast  expanse,  is 
in  its  infancy.  The  England  and  the  America  of  the 
present  are  probably  the  two  strongest  nations  of  the 
world.  But  there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt,  as  between  the 
America  and  the  England  of  the  future,  that  the  daughter, 
at  some  no  very  distant  time,  will,  whether  fairer  or  less 
fair,  be  unquestionably  yet  stronger  than  the  mother. 

"  0  niatre  forti  filia  fortior."  * 

4.  But  all  this  pompous  detail  of  material  triumphs, 
whether  for  the  one  or  for  the  other,  is  worse  than  idle, 
unless  the  men  of  the  two  countries  sliall  remain,  or  shall 
become,  greater  than  the  mere  things  that  they  produce, 
and  shall  know  how  to  regard  those  things  simply  as  tools 
and  materials  for  the  attainments  of  the  highest  purposes 
of  their  being.  Ascending,  then,  from  the  ground  floor  of 
material  industry  towards  the  regions  in  which  these 
purposes  are  to  be  wrought  out,  it  is  for  each  nation  to 
consider  how  far  its  institutions  have  reached  a  state,  in 
wliich  they  can  contribute  their  maximui.  to  the  store  of 
human  happiness  and  excellence.  And  for  the  political 
student  all  over  the  world,  it  will  be  beyond  anything 
ciiiious  as  well  as  useful  to  examine,  with  what  diversi- 
ties, as  well  as  what  resemblances,  of  apparatus,  the  two 


*  See  Hor.  OJ.  1.  13. 


,  KIN   BETOXD    ST.k.  207 

greater  branches  of  a  race  born  to  command  have  been 
minded,  or  induced,  or  constrained  to  work  out,  in  their 
eea-severed  seats,  their  political  destinies  according  to  the 
respective  laws  appointed  for  them. 

No  higher  ambition  can  find  vent  in  a  paper  such  as 
this,  than  to  suggest  the  position  and  claims  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  slightly  to  indicate  a  few  outlines,  or  at  least, 
fragments,  of  the  working  material. 

5.  In  many  and  the  most  fundamental  respects  the  two 
still  carry  in  undiminished,  perhaps  in  increasing,  clear- 
ness, the  notes  of  resemblance  that  beseem  a  parent  and  u 
child. 

]3oth  wish  for  self-government ;  and,  however  grave  the 
drawbacks  under  which  in  one  or  both  it  exists,  the  two 
have,  among  the  great  nations  of  the  world,  made  the 
most  effectual  advances  towards  the  true  aim  of  rational 
politics. 

They  are  similarly  associated  in  their  fixed  idea  that 
the  force,  in  which  all  government  takes  effect,  is  to  be 
constantly  backed,  and,  as  it  were,  illuminated,  by  thouglit 
in  speech  and  writing.  The  ruler  of  St.  Paul's  time 
"bare  the  sword"  (Rom.  xiii.  4).  Bare  it,  as  the 
Apostle  says,  with  a  mission  to  do  right ;  but  he  says 
nothiug  of  any  duty,  or  any  custom,  to  show  by  reason 
that  he  was  doing  right.  Our  two  governments,  whatso- 
ever they  do,  have  to  give  reasons  for  it ;  not  reasons 
■which  will  convince  the  unreasonable,  but  reasons  which 
on  the  whole  will  convince  the  average  mind,  and  carry  it 
unitedly  forwards  in  a  course  of  action,  often,  though  not 
always  wise,  and  carrying  within  itself  provisions,  where 
it  is  unwise,  for  the  correction  of  its  own  unwisdom  before 
it  grow  into  an  intolerable  rankness.  They  are  govern- 
ments, not  of  force  only,  but  of  persuasion. 


208  Enf    BETOXD    SEA. 

6.  Many  more  are  the  concords,  and  not  less  vital  than 
these,  of  the  two  nations,  as  expressed  in  their  institu- 
tions. They  alike  prefer  the  practical  to  the  abstract. 
They  tolerate  opinion,  with  only  a  reserve  on  behalf  of 
decency ;  and  they  desire  to  confine  coercion  to  the  pro- 
vince of  action,  and  to  leave  thought,  as  such,  entirely 
free.  They  set  a  high  value  on  liberty  for  its  own  sake. 
They  desire  to  give  full  scope  to  the  principles  of  self- 
reliance  in  the  people,  and  they  deem  self-help  to  be  im- 
measurably superior  to  help  in  any  other  form  ;  to  be  the 
only  help,  in  short,  which  ought  not  to  be  continually,  or 
periodically,  put  upon  its  trial,  and  required  to  make  good 
its  title.  They  mistrust  and  mislike  the  centralisation  of 
power ;  and  they  cherish  municipal,  local,  even  parochial 
liberties,  as  nursery  grounds,  not  only  for  the  production 
here  and  there  of  able  men,  but  for  the  general  training  of 
public  virtue  and  independent  spirit.  They  regard  pub- 
licity as  the  vital  air  of  politics ;  through  which  alone,  in 
its  freest  circulation,  opinions  can  be  thrown  into  common 
stock  for  the  good  of  all,  and  the  balance  of  relative  rights 
and  claims  can  be  habitually  and  peaceably  adjusted.  It 
would  be  difficult,  in  the  case  of  any  other  pair  of  nations, 
to  present  an  assemblage  of  traits  at  once  so  common  aud 
so  distinctive,  as  has  been  given  in  this  probably  imperfect 
enumeration. 

7.  There  were,  however,  the  strongest  reasons  why 
America  could  not  grow  into  a  reflection  or  repetition  of 
England.  Passing  from  a  narrow  island  to  a  continent 
almost  without  bounds,  the  colonists  at  once  and  vitally 
altered  their  conditions  of  thought,  as  well  as  of  existence, 
in  relation  to  the  most  important  and  most  operative  of 
all  social  facts,  the  possession  of  the  soil.  In  England, 
inequality  lies  imbedded  in   the  very  base   of  the  social 


KIN    BEYOND    SEA.  209 

structure ;  in  America  it  is  a  late,  incidental,  unrecognised 
product,  not  of  tradition,  but  of  industry  and  wealth,  aa 
tliey  advance  with  various  and,  of  necessity,  unequal  steps. 
Heredity,  seated  as  an  idea  in  the  heart's  core  of  English- 
men, and  sustaining  far  more  than  it  is  sustained  by  those 
of  our  institutions  which  express  it,  was  as  truly  absent 
from  the  intellectual  and  moral  store,  with  which  the 
colonists  traversed  the  Atlantic,  as  if  it  had  been  some 
forgotten  article  in  the  bills  of  lading  that  made  up  their 
cargoes.  Equality  combined  with  liberty,  and  renewable 
at  each  descent  from  one  generation  to  another,  like  a 
lease  with  stipulated  breaks,  was  the  groundwork  of  their 
social  creed.  In  vain  was  it  sought,  by  arrangements 
such  as  those  connected  with  the  name  of  Baltimore  or  of 
Penn,  to  qualify  the  action  of  those  overpowering  forces 
which  so  determined  the  case.  Slavery  itself,  strange 
as  it  now  may  seem,  failed  to  impair  the  theory  how- 
ever it  may  have  impoi'ted  into  the  practice  a  hideous 
solecism.  No  hardier  republicanism  was  generated  in 
New  England  than  in  the  Slave  States  of  tlie  South, 
which  produced  so  many  of  the  great  statesmen  of 
Ameiica. 

8.  It  may  be  said  that  the  North,  and  not  the  South, 
had  the  larger  number  of  colonists ;  and  was  the  centra 
of  those  commanding  moral  influences  which  gave  to  the 
country  as  a  whole  its  political  and  moral  atmosphere. 
The  type  and  form  of  manhood  for  America  was  supplied 
neither  by  the  Recusant  in  Maryland,  nor  by  the  Cavalier 
in  Virginia,  but  by  the  Puritan  of  New  England;  and  it 
would  have  been  a  form  and  type  widely  ditierent  could 
the  colonisation  have  taken  place  a  couple  of  centuries,  or 
a  single  century,  sooner.  Neither  the  Tudor,  nor  even 
the  Plantagenet  period,  could  have  supplied  its  special 

I.  p 


210  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

fonn.     The  Eeformation  was  a  cardinal  factor  in  its  pro- 
duction ;  and  this  in  more  ways  than  one. 

9.  Before  that  great  epoch,  the  political  forces  of  the 
country  were  represented  on  the  whole  by  the  Monarch 
on  one  side,  and  the  people  on  the  other.  In  the  people, 
setting  aside  the  latent  vein  of  LoUardism,  there  was  a 
general  homogeneity  with  respect  to  all  that  concerned 
the  relation  of  governors  and  governed.  In  the  deposition 
of  Sovereigns,  the  resistance  to  abuses,  the  establishment 
of  institutions  for  the  defence  of  liberty,  there  were  no 
two  parties  to  divide  the  land.  But,  with  the  Reforma- 
tion, a  new  dualism  was  sensibly  developed  among  us. 
Not  a  dualism  so  violent  as  to  break  up  the  national  unity, 
but  yet  one  so  marked  and  substantial,  that  thenceforward 
it  was  very  difficult  for  any  individual  or  body  of  men  to 
represent  the  entire  English  character,  and  the  old  balance 
of  its  forces.  The  wrench  which  severed  the  Church  and 
people  from  the  Bom  an  obedience  left  for  domestic  settle- 
ment thereafter  a  tremendous  internal  question,  between 
the  historical  and  the  new,  which  in  its  milder  form  per- 
plexes us  to  this  day.  Except  during  the  short  reign  of 
Edward  VI.,  the  civil  power,^  in  various  methods  and 
degrees,  took  what  may  be  termed  the  traditionary  side, 
and  favoured  the  development  of  the  historical  more  than 
the  individual  aspect  of  the  national  religion.  These 
elements  confronted  one  another  during  the  reigns  of  the 
earlier  Stuarts,  not  only  with  obstinacy  but  with  fierce- 
ness. There  had  grown  up  with  the  Tudors,  from  a 
variety  of  causes,  a  great  exaggeration  of  the  idea  of  Boyal 
power;  and  this  arrived,  under  James  I.  and  Charles  I., 
at  a  rank  maturity.  Not  less,  but  even  more  masculine 
and  determined,  was  the  converse  development.  Mr. 
Hallam   saw,  and  has  said,  that  at  the  outbreak  of  tho 


KIN    BKVOXD    SEA,  211 

Great  Eobellion,  the  old  British  Constitution  vras  in  dan- 
ger, not  from  one  party  but  from  both.  In  that  mixed 
fabric  had  once  been  harmonised  the  ideas,  both  of  reli- 
gious duty,  and  of  allegiance  as  related  to  it,  which  were 
noAV  held  in  severance.  The  hardiest  and  dominating 
portion  of  the  American  Colonists  represented  that  sever- 
ance in  its  extremest  form,  and  had  dropped  out  of  the 
order  of  the  ideas,  which  they  carried  across  the  water, 
all  those  elements  of  political  Anglicism,  which  give  to 
aristocracy  in  tliis  country  a  position  only  second  in 
strength  to  that  of  freedom.  State  and  Church  alike  had 
frowned  u])on  them ;  and  their  strong  reaction  was  a  re- 
action of  their  entire  nature,  alike  of  tlie  spiritual  and 
the  secular  man.  All  that  was  democratic  in  the  policy  of 
England,  and  all  that  was  Protestant  in  her  religion,  they 
carried  witli  them,  in  pronounced  and  exclusive  forms, 
to  a  soil  and  a  scene  singularly  suited  for  their  growtli. 

10.  It  is  to  the  honour  of  tlic  British  Monarchy  that, 
upon  the  whole,  it  frankly  recog-nised  the  facts,  and  did  not 
]>edanti(al]y  endeavour  to  constrain  by  artificial  and  alien 
limitations  the  growth  of  the  infant  States.  It  is  a  thing 
to  be  remembered  that  the  accusations  of  the  colonies  in 
1776  were  entirely  levelled  at  the  King  actually  on  the 
throne,  and  that  a  general  acquittal  was  thus  given  by 
them  to  every  preceding  reign.  Their  infancy  had  been 
upon  the  whole  what  tluir  manhood  was  to  be,  self-governed 
and  republican.  Their  Revolution,  as  we  call  it,  was  like 
ours  in  the  main,  a  vindication  of  liberties  inherited  and 
possessed.  It  was  a  Conservative  revolution ;  and  the 
ha])py  result  was  that,  notwitlistanding  llie  sharpness  of 
the  collision  with  the  mother-country,  and  with  domestic 
loyalisra,  the  Thirteen  Colonies  made  provision  for  their 
future  in  conformity,  as  to  all  that  determined  life  and 

p  2 


212  KIN    BEYONB    SEA. 

manners,  with  the  recollections  of  their  past.  The  two 
Constitutions  of  the  two  countries  express  indeed  rather 
the  differences  than  the  resemblances  of  the  nations. 
The  one  is  a  thing  grown,  the  other  a  thing  made :  the 
one  a  praxis,  the  other  a  poitsis :  the  one  the  ofl'spring  of 
tendency  and  indeterminate  time,  the  other  of  choice  and 
of  an  epoch.  But,  as  the  British  Constitution  is  the  most 
subtle  organism  which  bas  proceeded  from  the  womb  and 
the  long  gestation  of  progressive  history,  so  the  American 
Constitution  is,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  the  most  wonderful 
work  ever  struck  oif  at  a  given  time  by  the  brain  and 
purpose  of  man.  It  has  had  a  century  of  trial,  under  the 
pressure  of  exigencies  caused  by  an  expansion  unexampled 
in  point  of  rapidity  and  range  :  and  its  exemption  from 
formal  change,  though  not  entire,  has  certainly  proved 
the  sagacity  of  the  constructors,  and  the  stubborn  strength 
of  the  fabric. 

11.  One  whose  life  has  been  greatly  absorbed  in  work- 
ing, with  others,  the  institutions  of  his  own  country,  has 
not  had  the  opportunities  necessary  for  the  careful  and 
searching  scrutiny  of  institutions  elsewhere.  I  should  feel, 
in  looking  at  those  of  America,  like  one  who  attempts  to 
scan  the  stars  with  the  naked  eye.  My  notices  can  only 
be  few,  faint,  and  superficial ;  they  are  but  an  introduc- 
tion to  what  I  have  to  say  of  the  land  of  my  birth.  A 
few  sentences  will  dispose  of  them. 

12.  America,  whose  attitude  towards  England  has 
always  been  masculine  and  real,  has  no  longer  to  anticipate 
at  our  hands  the  frivolous  and  offensive  criticisms  which 
were  once  in  vogue  among  us.  But  neither  nation  prefers 
(and  it  would  be  an  ill  sign  if  eitlier  did  prefer)  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  other ;  and  we  certainly  do  not  contemplate 
the  great  llepublic  in  the  spirit  of  mere  optimism.     We 


KIN    BEYOND    SEA.  213 

see  that  it  has  a  marvellous  and  unexampled  adaptation 
for  its  peculiar  vocation;  that  it  must  be  judged,  not  in 
the  abstract,  but  under  the  fore-ordered  laws  of  its  exist- 
ence ;  that  it  has  purged  away  the  blot  with  which  we 
brought  it  into  the  world  ;  that  it  bravely  and  vigorously 
grapples  with  the  problem  of  making  a  Continent  into  a 
State ;  and  that  it  treasures  with  fondness  the  traditions 
of  British  antiquity,  which  are  in  truth  unconditionally 
its  own,  as  well,  and  as  much  as  they  are  ours.  The 
thing  that  perhaps  chiefly  puzzles  the  inhabitants  of  the 
old  country  is  why  the  American  people  should  permit 
their  entire  existence  to  be  continually  disturbed  by  the 
business  of  the  Presidential  elections ;  and,  still  more, 
why  they  should  raise  to  its  maximum  the  intensity  of 
this  pertm-bation  by  providing,  as  we  are  told,  for  what 
is  termed  a  clean  sweep  of  the  entire  Civil  Service,  in  all 
its  ranks  and  departments,  on  each  accession  of  a  Chief 
Magistrate.  We  do  not  perceive  why  this  arrangement 
is  more  rational  than  would  be  a  corresponding  usage  in 
this  country  on  each  change  of  Ministry.  Our  practice  is 
as  different  as  possible.  We  limit  to  a  few  scores  of 
persons  the  removals  and  appointments  on  these  occasions ; 
although  our  Ministries  seem  to  us,  not  unfrequently,  to 
be  more  shai-ply  severed  from  one  another  in  principle 
and  tendency  than  are  the  successive  Presidents  of  the 
great  Union. 

13.  It  would  be  out  of  place  to  discuss  in  this  article 
occasional  phenomena  of  local  comiption  in  the  United 
States,  by  which  the  nation  at  large  can  hardly  be 
touched  :  or  the  mysterious  mauipulatlons  of  votes  for  the 
Presidency,  which  are  now  understood  to  be  under  exami- 
nation ;  or  the  very  curious  influences  which  are  shaping 
the  politics  of  the  negroes  and  of  the  South.     These  last 


214  KIN   BEYOND    SEA. 

are  corollaries  to  the  great  slave-question ;  and  it  seems 
very  possible  that  after  a  few  years  we  may  see  most 
of  the  labourers,  both  in  the  Southern  States  and  in 
England,  actively  addicted  to  the  political  support  of  that 
section  of  their  countrymen  who  to  the  last  had  resisted 
their  emancipation. 

14.  But  if  there  be  those  in  this  country  who  think  that 
American  democracy  means  public  levity  and  intemper- 
ance, or  a  lack  of  skill  and  sagacity  in  politics,  or  the 
absence  of  self-command  and  self-denial,  let  them  bear  in 
mind  a  few  of  the  most  salient  and  recent  facts  of  history 
which  may  profitably  be  recommended  to  their  reflections. 
We  emancipated  a  million  of  negroes  by  peaceful  legisla- 
tion ;  America  liberated  four  or  five  millions  by  a  bloody 
civil  war :  yet  the  industry  and  exports  of  the  Southern 
States  are  maintained,  while  those  of  our  negro  Colonies 
have  dwindled;  the  South  enjoys  all  its  franchises,  but 
we  have,  proh  pudor  !  found  no  better  method  of  providing 
for  peace  and  order  in  Jamaica,  the  chief  of  our  islands, 
than  by  the  hard  and  vulgar,  even  where  needful,  expe- 
dient of  abolishing  entirely  its  I'epresentative  institutions. 

15.  The  Civil  War  compelled  the  States,  both  North  and 
South,  to  train  and  embody  a  million  and  a  half  of  men, 
and  to  present  to  view  the  greatest,  instead  of  the  smallest, 
armed  forces  in  the  world.  Here  there  was  supposed  to 
arise  a  double  danger.  First  that,  on  a  sudden  cessation 
of  the  war,  military  life  and  habits  could  not  be  shaken 
off,  and,  having  become  rudely  and  widely  predominant, 
would  bias  the  country  towards  an  aggressive  policy, 
or,  still  worse,  would  find  vent  in  predatory  or  revolu- 
tionary operations.  Secondly,  that  a  military  caste  would 
grow  up  with  its  habits  of  exclusivencss  and  command, 
and  would  influence  the  tone  of  politics  in  a  direction 


KIN    T5KY0ND    SEA..  215 

adverse  to  republican  freedom.     Eut  "both  apprehensions 
proved  to  be  wholly  imaginary.    The  innumerable  soldiery 
was  at  once  dissolved.     Cineinnatus,  no  longer  an  unique 
example,  became  the  common])lacc  of  every  day,  the  type 
and  mould  of  a  nation.     The  whole  enormous  mass  quietly 
resumed  the  habits  of  social  life.     The  generals  of  yester- 
day were  the  editors,  the  secretaries,  and  the  solicitors  of 
to-day.     The  just  jealousy  of  the  State  gave  life  to  the 
now  forgotten  maxim  of  Judge  Blackstonc,  who  denounced 
as  perilous  the  erection  of  a  separate  profession  of  arms  in 
a  free   country.     The    standing  army,  expanded  by  the 
heat  of  civil  contest  to  gigantic  dimensions,  settled  down 
again  into  the  framework  of  a  miniature  with  the  returning 
temperature  of  civil  life,  and  became  a  power  well  nigh 
invisible,   from  its  minuteness,  amidst  the  powers  which 
sway  the  movements  of  a  society  exceeding  forty  millions. 
1 6.  More  remarkable  still  was  the  financial  sequel  to  the 
great  conflict.    The  internal  taxation  for  Federal  purposes, 
which  before  its  commencement  had  been  unknown,  was 
raised,  in  obedience  to  an  exigency  of  life  and  death,  so 
as  to  exceed  every  present  and  every  past  example.     It 
pursued   and  worried   all  the  transactions  of  life.     The 
interest  of  the  American  debt  grew  to  be  the  highest  in 
the  world,  and  the  capital  touched  five  hundred  and  sixty 
millions  sterling.     Here  was  provided  for  the  fiith  and 
patience  of  the  people  a  touchstone  of  extreme  severity. 
In  England,  at  the   close   of  the  great  French  war,  the 
propertied  classes,  who  were  supreme  in  Parliament,  at 
once  rebelled  against  the  Tory  Government,  and  refused 
to  prolong  the  Income  Tax  even  for  a  single  year.     We 
talked  big,  both  then  and  now,  about  the  payment  of  our 
National  Debt ;  but  sixty-three  years  have  since  elapsed, 
all  of  them  except  two  called  years  of  peace,  and  we  have 


216  nx    BETOXD    SEA. 

reduced  the  huge  total  hy  ahout  one-ninth  ;  that  is  to 
say,  by  little  over  one  hundred  millions,  or  scarcely  more 
than  one  million  and  a  half  a  year.  This  is  the  conduct 
of  a  State  elaborately  digested  into  orders  and  degrees, 
famed  for  wisdom  and  forethought,  and  consolidated  by  a 
long  experience.  But  America  continued  long  to  bear, 
on  her  unaccustomed  and  still  smarting  shoulders,  the 
burden  of  the  war  taxation.  In  twelve  years  she  has 
reduced  her  debt  by  one  hundi*ed  and  fifty-eight  millions 
sterling,  or  at  the  rate  of  thirteen  millions  for  every  year. 
In  each  twelve  months  she  has  done  what  we  did  in  eight 
years  ;  her  self-command,  self-denial,  and  wise  forethought 
for  the  future  have  been,  to  say  the  least,  eightfold  ours. 
These  are  facts  which  redound  greatly  to  her  honour ; 
and  the  historian  will  record  with  surprise  that  an  enfran- 
chised nation  tolerated  burdens  which  in  this  country  a 
selected  class,  possessed  of  the  representation,  did  not 
dare  to  face,  and  that  the  most  unmitigated  democracy 
known  to  the  annals  of  the  world  resolutely  reduced  at 
its  own  cost  prospective  liabilities  of  the  State,  which  the 
aristocratic,  and  plutocratic,  and  Monarchical  Government 
of  the  United  Kingdom  has  been  contented  ignobly  to 
hand  over  to  posterity.  And  such  facts  should  be  told 
out.  It  is  our  fashion  so  to  tell  them,  against  as  well  aa 
for  ourselves ;  and  the  record  of  them  may  some  day  be 
among  the  means  of  stirring  us  up  to  a  policy  more  worthy 
of  the  name  and  fame  of  England. 

17.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  we  lie  under  some  heavy 
and,  I  fear,  increasing  disadvantages,  which  amount  almost 
to  disabilities.  Not,  however,  any  disadvantage  respecting 
power,  as  power  is  commonly  understood.  But,  while 
America  has  a  nearly  homogeneous  country,  and  an  admir- 
able division  of  political  labour  between  the  States  iudi- 


KXN    BEYOND    SEA.  217 

vidually  and  the  Federal  Government,  we  are,  in  public 
affairs,  an  overcharged  and  overweighted  people.* 

We  have  undertaken  the  cares  of  Empire  upon  a  scale, 
and  with  a  diversity,  unexampled  in  history  ;  and,  as  it 
has  not  yet  pleased  Providence  to  endow  us  with  brain- 
force  and  animal  strength  in  an  equally  abnormal  pro- 
portion, the  consequence  is  that  we  perform  the  work  of 
government,  as  to  many  among  its  more  important  depart- 
ments, in  a  very  superficial  and  slovenly  manner.  The 
affairs  of  the  three  associated  Kingdoms,  with  their  great 
diversities  of  law,  interest,  and  circumstance,  make  the 
government  of  them,  even  if  they  stood  alone,  a  business 
more  voluminous,  so  to  speak,  than  that  of  any  other 
thirty-three  millions  of  civilised  men.  To  ligliten  the 
cares  of  the  central  legislature  by  judicious  devolution,  it 
is  probable  that  much  might  be  done  ;  but  nothing  is 
done,  or  even  attempted  to  be  done.  The  greater  Colonies 
have  happily  attained  to  a  virtual  self-government ;  yet 
the  aggregate  mass  of  business  connected  with  our  colonial 
possessions  continues  to  be  very  large.  The  Indian  Empire 
is  of  itself  a  charge  so  vast,  and  demanding  so  much 
thought  and  care,  that  if  it  were  the  sole  transmarine 
appendage  to  the  Crown,  it  would  amply  tax  the  best 
ordinary  stock  of  human  energies.  Notoriously,  it  obtains 
from  the  Parliament  only  a  small  fraction  of  the  attention 
it  deserves.  Questions  affecting  intlividuals,  again,  or 
small  interests,  or  classes,  excite  here  a  gi-eater  interest, 
and  occupy  a  larger  share  of  time,  than,  perhaps,  in  any 
other  community.     In  no  country,  I  may  add,  are  the 


*  [This  subject  has  boon  more  fiHly  developed  by  me  in  an  article 
on  '  £ni;lan<i's  Mission,'  contributed  to  The  Nineteenth  CmUurj  lor 
Soptember  of  the  present  year. — W.  E.  G.,  December  1878.] 


218  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

interests  of  persons  or  classes  so  favoured  when  they  com- 
pete with  those  of  the  public  ;  and  in  none  are  they  more 
exacting,  or  more  wakeful  to  turn  this  advantage  to  the 
best  account.  With  the  vast  extension  of  our  enterprise 
and  our  trade,  comes  a  breadth  of  Kability  not  less  large, 
to  consider  everything  that  is  critical  in  the  affairs  of 
foreign  States  ;  and  the  real  responsibilities,  thus  existing 
for  us,  are  unnaturally  inflated  by  fast-growing  tendencies 
towards  exaggeration  of  our  concern  in  these  matters,  and 
even  towards  sotting  up  fictitious  interests  in  cases  where 
none  can  discern  them  except  ourselves,  and  such  Con- 
tinental friends  as  practise  upon  our  credulity  and  our 
fears  for  purposes  of  their  own.  Last  of  all,  it  is  not  to 
be  denied  that  in  what  I  have  been  saying,  I  do  not  repre- 
sent the  public  sentiment.  The  nation  is  not  at  all  con- 
scious of  being  overdone.  The  people  see  that  their 
House  of  Commons  is  the  hardest-working  legislative 
assembly  in  the  world  :  and,  this  being  so,  they  assume 
it  is  all  right.  Nothing  pays  better,  in  point  of  popularity,  . 
than  those  gratuitous  additions  to  obligations  already  be- 
yond human  strength,  which  look  like  accessions  or  asser- 
tion of  power ;  such  as  the  annexation  of  new  territory, 
or  the  silly  transaction  known  as  the  purchase  of  shares 
iu  the  Suez  Canal. 

1 8.  All  my  life  long  I  have  seen  this  excess  of  work  as 
compared  Avith  the  power  to  do  it ;  but  the  evil  has  in- 
creased with  the  surfeit  of  wealth,  and  tliere  is  no  sign 
that  the  increase  is  near  its  end.  The  people  of  this 
country  are  a  very  strong  people  ;  but  there  is  no  strength 
that  can  permanently  endure,  without  provoking  incon- 
venient consequences,  this  kind  of  political  debauch.  It 
may  be  hoped,  but  it  cannot  be  predicted,  that  the  mischief 
will  be  encountered  imd  subdued  at  the  point  where  it 


KIN    BEYOND    SEA.  219 

will  have  become  sensibly  troublesome,  but  will  not  have 
grown  to  be  quite  irremediable. 

19.  The  main  and  central  point  of  interest,  however,  in 
the  institutions  of  a  country  is  the  manner  in  which  it  draws 
together  and  compounds  the  public  forces  in  the  balanced 
action  of  the  State.  It  seems  plain  that  the  formal 
arrangements  for  this  purpose  in  America  are  very  dif- 
ferent from  ours.  It  may  even  be  a  question  whether 
they  are  not,  in  certain  respects,  less  popular;  whether 
our  institutions  do  not  give  more  rapid  effect,  than  those 
of  the  Union,  to  any  formed  opinion,  and  resolved  inten- 
tion, of  the  nation. 

20.  In  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Government  we  seem 
to  perceive  three  stages  of  distinct  advancement.  First, 
the  formation  of  the  Confederation,  under  the  pressure  of 
the  War  of  Independence.  Secondly,  the  Constitution, 
■which  placed  the  Federal  Government  in  defined  and 
direct  relation  with  the  people  inhabiting  the  several 
States.  Thirdly,  the  struggle  with  the  South,  which  for 
the  first  time,  and  definitely,  decided  that  to  the  Union, 
through  its  Federal  organisation,  and  not  to  the  State- 
governments,  were  reserved  all  the  questions  not  decided 
and  disposed  of  by  the  express  provisions  of  the  Constitu- 
tion itself.*     The   great  arcanum  imperii,  which  with  us 


*  [This  is  a  proposition  of  £jro:it  importance  in  a  disputed  suhject- 
matler ;  and  consciiuentl)'  I  have  not  announced  it  in  a  dogmatic 
manner,  but  as  a  ])ortion  of  what  we  "seem  to  perceive"  in  the  [iro- 
gress  of  the  American  Constitution.  It  ex})resses  an  opinion  formed 
bv"  me  upon  an  examination  of  the  original  documents,  and  with  some 
attention  to  the  history,  which  I  have  always  considered,  and  have 
often  recommended  to  others,  as  one  of  the  most  fruitlul  studies  of 
modern  politics.  This  is  not  the  ])roper  occasion  to  develop  its  j^rounds  : 
but  i  may  say  that  1  am  not  at  all  disposed  to  surrender  it  iu  deference 
to  one  or  two  rather  contemptuous  critics. — W.  E.  G.,  December  18G8.J 


220  KIN    BETOXD    SEA. 

belongs  to  the  three  branches  of  the  legislature,  and  which 
is  expressed  by  the  current  phrase,  "  omnipotence  of  Par- 
liament," thus  became  the  acknowledged  property  of  the 
three  branches  of  the  Federal  legislature  ;  and  the  old 
and  respectable  doctrine  of  State  Independence  is  now  no 
more  than  an  archaeological  relic,  a  piece  of  historical 
antiquarianism.  Yet  the  actual  attributions  of  the  State 
authorities  cover  by  far  the  largest  part  of  the  province  of 
Government ;  and  by  this  division  of  labour  and  authority, 
the  problem  of  fixing  for  the  nation  a  political  centre  of 
gravity  is  divested  of  a  large  part  of  its  difficulty  and 
danger,  in  some  proportions  to  the  limitations  of  the 
working  precinct. 

21.  Within  that  precinct,  the  initiation  as  well  as  the 
final  sanction  in  the  great  business  of  finance  is  made  over 
to  the  popular  branch  of  the  Legislature,  and  a  most 
interesting  question  arises  upon  the  comparative  merits 
of  this  arrangement,  and  of  our  own  method,  which 
theoretically  throws  upon  the  Crown  the  responsibility  of 
initiating  public  charge,  and  under  which,  until  a  recent 
period,  our  practice  was  in  actual  and  even  close  corre- 
spondence with  this  theory. 

22.  We  next  come  to  a  diff'erence  still  more  marked. 
The  Federal  Executive  is  bom  anew  of  the  nation  at  the 
end  of  each  four  years,  and  dies  at  the  end.  But,  during 
the  course  of  those  years,  it  is  independent,  in  the  person 
both  of  the  President  and  of  his  Ministers,  alike  of  the 
people,  of  their  representatives,  and  of  that  remarkable 
body,  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  inventions  of  modem 
politics,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  In  this  im- 
portant matter,  whatever  be  the  relative  e.xcellences  and 
defects  of  the  British  and  American  systems,  it  is  most 
certain   that  nothing  would  induce  the  people  of  this 


KIN    BKYOND    SEA.  221 

country,  or  even  the  Tory  portion  of  them,  to  exchange 
our  own  for  theirs.  It  may,  indeed,  not  be  obvious  to  the 
foreign  eye  ^vhat  is  the  exact  difference  of  tlie  two.  Both 
the  representative  chambers  hold  the  power  of  the  purse. 
But  in  America  its  conditions  are  such  that  it  does  not 
operate  in  any  way  on  behalf  of  the  Chamber  or  of  the 
nation,  as  against  the  Executive.  In  England,  on  the 
contrary,  its  efficiency  has  been  such  that  it  has  worked 
out  for  itself  channels  of  effective  operation,  such  as  to 
dispense  with  its  direct  use,  and  avoid  the  inconveniences 
which  might  be  attendant  upon  that  use.  A  vote  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  declaring  a  withdrawal  of  its  con- 
fidence, has  always  sufficed  for  the  purpose  of  displacing 
a  Ministry ;  nay,  persistent  obstruction  of  its  measures, 
and  even  lighter  causes,  have  conveyed  the  hint,  which 
has  been  obediently  taken.  But  the  people,  how  is  it  with 
them '?  Do  not  the  people  in  England  part  with  their 
power,  and  make  it  over  to  the  House  of  Commons,  as 
completely  as  the  American  people  part  Avith  it  to  the 
President  ?  They  give  it  over  for  four  years :  we  for  a 
period  which  on  the  average  is  somewhat  more  :  they,  to 
resume  it  at  a  fixed  time ;  we,  on  an  unfixed  contingency, 
and  at  a  time  which  will  finally  be  determined,  not  accord- 
ing to  the  popular  will,  but  according  to  the  views  which 
a  Ministry  may  entertain  of  its  duty  or  convenii'uce. 

23.  All  this  is  true  ;  but  it  is  not  the  whole  truth.  In 
the  United  Kingdom,  the  people  as  such  cannot  commonly 
act  upon  the  Ministry  as  such.  But  mediately,  though  not 
immediately,  they  gain  the  end  :  for  they  can  work  upon 
that  which  works  upon  the  Ministry,  namely,  on  the 
House  of  Commons.  Firstly,  they  have  not  renounced, 
like  the  American  people,  the  exercise  of  their  power  for 
a  given  time  ;  and  they  are   at  all  times  free  by  speech, 


222  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

petition,  public  meeting,  to  endeavour  to  get  it  back  in 
full  by  bringing  about  a  dissolution.  Secondly,  in  a 
Parliament  with  nearly  660  members,  vacancies  occur 
with  tolerable  frequency;  and,  as  they  are  commonly 
filled  up  forthwith,  they  continually  modify  the  colour  of 
the  Parliament,  comfortably,  not  to  the  past,  but  to  the 
present  feeling  of  the  nation ;  or,  at  least,  of  the  con- 
stituency, which  for  practical  purposes  is  different  indeed, 
yet  not  very  different.  But,  besides  exercising  a  limited 
positive  influence  on  the  present,  they  supply  a  much  less 
limited  indication  of  the  future.  Of  the  members  who  at 
a  given  time  sit  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the  vast 
majority,  probably  more  than  nine-tenths,  have  the  desire 
to  sit  there  again,  after  a  dissolution  which  may  come  at 
any  moment.  They  therefore  study  political  weather- 
wisdom,  and  in  varying  degrees  adapt  themselves  to  the 
indications  of  the  sky.  It  will  now  be  readily  perceived 
how  the  popular  sentiment  in  England,  so  far  as  it  is 
awake,  is  not  meanly  provided  with  the  ways  of  making 
itself  respected,  whether  for  the  purpose  of  displacing  and 
replacing  a  Ministry,  or  of  constraining  it  (as  sometimes 
ha]ipens)  to  alter  or  reverse  its  policy  sufficiently,  at 
k'ast,  to  conjure  down  the  gathering  and  muttering 
storm. 

24.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  every  nation  is  of  necessity,  to 
a  great  extent,  in  the  condition  of  the  sluggard  with  regard 
to  public  policy  ;  hard  to  rouse,  harder  to  keep  aroused, 
sure  after  a  little  while  to  sink  back  into  his  slumber  : — 

"  Pressitqiio  jucontera, 
Dulcis  et  alta  quies,  placidajque  simillima  iiioiti." — x'En.vi.  522. 

The  people  hare  a  vast,  but  an  encumbered  power ;  and, 
in  their  struggles  with  overweening  authoiity,  or  with  pro- 


EIN    BKTOXD    SKA.  223 

perty,  the  excess  of  force,  which  they  undoubtedly  possess, 
is  more  than  counterbalanced  by  the  constant  wakefulness 
of  the  adversary,  by  his  knoAvledgc  of  their  weakness,  and 
by  his  command  of  opportunity.  But  this  is  a  fault  lying 
rather  in  the  conditions  of  human  life  than  in  political 
institutions.  There  is  no  known  mode  of  making  attention 
and  inattention  equal  in  their  results.  It  is  enough  to 
say  that  in  England,  when  the  nation  can  attend,  it  can 
prevail.  So  we  may  say,  then,  that  in  the  American 
Union  the  Federal  Executive  is  independent  for  each  four 
years  both  of  the  Congress  and  of  the  people.  But  the 
British  Ministry  is  largely  dependent  on  the  people  when- 
ever the  people  firmly  will  it;  and  is  always  dependent  on 
the  House  of  Commons,  except  of  course  when  it  cau 
safely  and  effectually  appeal  to  the  people. 

25.  So  far,  so  good.  But  if  we  wish  really  to  understand 
the  manner  in  which  the  Queen's  Government  over  the 
British  Empire  is  carried  on,  we  must  now  prepare  to 
examine  into  some  sharper  contrasts  than  any  which  our 
path  has  yet  brought  into  view.  The  power  of  the  Ame- 
rican Executive  resides  in  the  person  of  the  actual  Pre- 
sident, and  passes  from  him  to  his  successor.  His  ^Ministers, 
grouped  around  him,  are  the  servants,  not  only  of  his  office, 
but  of  his  mind.  The  intelligence,  which  carries  on  the 
Government,  has  i*s  main  seat  in  him.  The  responsi- 
bility of  failures  is  understood  to  fall  on  him ;  and  it  is 
round  his  head  that  success  sheds  its  halo.  The  Americau 
Government  is  described  truly  as  a  Government  composed 
of  three  members,  of  three  powers  distinct  from  one  another. 
The  English  Government  is  likewise  so  described,  not  truly, 
but  conventionally.  For  in  the  English  Government  tliere 
has  gradually  formed  itself  a  fourth  power,  entering  into 
and  sharing  the  vitality  of  each  of  the  other  three,  and 


224  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

charged  with  the  business  of  holding  them  in  harmony  ag 
they  march. 

26.  This  Fourth  Power  is  the  Ministiy,  or  more  properly 
the  Cabinet.  For  the  rest  of  the  Ministry  is  subordinate  and 
ancillary  ;  and,  though  it  largely  shares  in  many  depart- 
ments the  labours  of  the  Cabinet,  yet  it  has  only  a  second- 
ary and  derivative  share  in  the  higher  responsibilities. 
No  account  of  the  present  British  Constitution  is  worth 
having  which  does  not  take  this  Fourth  Power  largely 
and  carefully  into  view.  And  yet  it  is  not  a  distinct 
power,  made  up  of  elements  unknown  to  the  other  three ; 
any  more  than  a  sphere  contains  elements  other  than  those 
referable  to  the  three  co-ordinates,  which  determine  the 
position  of  every  point  in  space.  The  Fourth  Power  is 
parasitical  to  the  three  others  ;  and  lives  upon  their  life, 
without  any  separate  existence.  One  portion  of  it  forms 
a  part,  which  may  be  termed  an  integral  part,  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  another  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  and 
the  two  conjointly,  nestling  within  the  precinct  of 
E-oyalty,  form  the  inner  Council  of  the  Crown,  assuming 
the  whole  of  its  responsibilities,  and  in  consequence 
wielding,  as  a  rule,  its  powers.  The  Cabinet  is  the  three- 
fold hinge  that  connects  together  for  action  the  Eritish 
Constitution  of  King  or  Queen,  Lords,  and  Commons. 
Upon  it  is  concentrated  the  whole  strain  of  the  Govern- 
ment, and  it  constitutes  from  day  to  day  the  true  centre 
of  gravity  for  the  working  system  of  the  State,  although 
the  ultimate  superiority  of  force  resides  in  the  representa- 
tive chamber. 

27.  There  is  no  statute  or  legal  usage  of  this  country 
which  requires  that  the  Ministers  of  the  Crown  should  hold 
seats  in  the  one  or  the  other  House  of  Parliament.  It  is 
peihaps  upon  this  account  that,  while  most  of  my  coun- 


KTS    BETOXD    SEA.  225 

trymen  -would,  as  I  suppose,  declare  it  to  be  a  becom- 
ing and  convenient  custom,  yet  comparatively  few  are 
aM'are  how  near  the  seat  of  life  the  observance  lies,  how 
closely  it  is  connected  with  the  equipoise  and  unity  of  the 
social  forces.  It  is  rarely  departed  from,  even  in  an  indi- 
vidual case;  never,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  on  a 
wider  scale.  From  accidental  circumstances  it  happened 
that  I  was  a  Secretary  of  State  between  December  1845 
and  July  1846,  witliout  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
This  (which  did  not  pass  wholly  without  challenge)  is,  I 
believe,  by  much  the  most  notable  instance  for  the  last 
fifty  years  ;  and  it  is  only  within  the  last  fifty  years  that 
our  Constitutional  system  has  completely  settled  down, 
before  the  reform  of  Parliament,  it  was  always  easy  to 
find  a  place  for  a  Minister  excluded  from  his  seat ;  as  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  for  example,  ejected  from  Oxford  University, 
at  once  found  refuge  and  repose  at  Tamworth.  I  desire 
to  fix  attention  on  the  identification,  in  this  country,  of 
the  Minister  with  the  member  of  a  House  of  Parliament. 

28.  It  is,  as  to  the  House  of  Commons  especially,  an  in- 
separable and  vital  part  of  our  system.  The  associatiou  of 
the  Ministers  with  the  Parliament,  and  through  the  House 
of  Commons  with  the  people,  is  the  counterpart  of  their 
association  as  Ministers  with  the  Crown  and  the  preroga- 
tive. The  decisions  that  they  take  are  taken  under  the 
competing  pressure  of  a  bias  this  way  and  a  bias  that  way, 
and  strictly  represent  what  is  termed  in  mechanics  the 
composition  of  forces.  Upon  them,  thus  placed,  it  devolves 
to  provide  that  the  Houses  of  Parliament  shall  loyally 
counsel  and  serve  the  Crown,  and  that  the  Crown  shall 
act  strictly  in  accordance  with  its  obligations  to  the  nation. 
I  will  not  presume  to  say  whether  the  adoption  of  the 
rule  in  America  would  or  would  not  lay  the  foundation  of 

I.  Q 


226  Km    BEYOND    SEA. 

a  great  change  in  the  Federal  Constitution ;  but  I  am 
quite  sure  that  the  abrogation  of  it  in  England  would 
either  alter  the  form  of  government,  or  bring  about  a 
crisis.  That  it  conduces  to  the  personal  comfort  of 
Ministers,  I  will  not  undertake  to  say.  The  various 
currents  of  political  and  social  influences  meet  edgeways 
in  their  persons,  much  like  the  conflicting  tides  in  St. 
George's  Channel  or  the  Straits  of  Dover  ;  for,  while  they 
are  the  ultimate  regulators  of  the  relations  between  the 
Crown  on  the  one  side,  and  the  people  through  the  Houses 
of  Parliament  on  the  other,  they  have  no  authority  vested 
in  them  to  coerce  or  censure  either  way.  Their  attitude 
towards  the  Houses  must  always  be  that  of  deference  ; 
their  language  that  of  respect,  if  not  submission.  Still 
more  must  their  attitude  and  language  towards  the 
Sovereign  be  the  same  in  prii^ciple,  and  yet  more  marked 
in  form ;  and  this,  though  upon  them  lies  the  ultimate 
responsibility  of  decidiug  what  shall  be  done  in  the 
Crown's  name  in  every  branch  of  administration,  and 
every  department  of  policy,  coupled  only  with  the  alterna- 
tive of  ceasing  to  be  Ministers,  if  what  they  may  ad- 
visedly deem  the  requisite  power  of  action  be  denied 
them. 

29.  In  the  ordinary  administration  of  the  government, 
the  Sovereign  personally  is,  so  to  speak,  behind  the  scenes ; 
performing,  indeed,  many  personal  acts  by  the  Sign- 
manual,  or  otherwise,  but,  in  each  and  all  of  them, 
covered  by  the  counter-signature  or  advice  of  Ministers, 
who  stand  between  the  august  Personage  and  the  people. 
T'here  is,  accordingly,  no  more  yjower,  under  the  form  of 
our  Constitution,  to  assail  the  Monarch  in  his  personal 
capacity,  or  to  assail  through  him,  the  line  of  succession 
to  the  Crown,  than  there  is  at  chess  to  put  the  king  in 


KFN    1?EY0ND    SEA.  227 

cTiock.  In  trTith,  a  p:oocl  deal,  thmis^h  by  no  moans  the 
■whole,  of  the  pliilosophy  of  the  British  Constitution  is 
represented  in  tliis  central  point  of  the  wonderfnl  fjame, 
against  which  the  only  ri'proach — the  reproach  of  Lord 
Bacon — is  that  it  is  hardly  a  relaxation,  but  rather  a 
serious  tax  npon  the  brain. 

30.  The  Sovereign  in  England  is  the  symbol  of  the 
nation's  unity,  and  the  apex  of  the  social  structure ;  the 
maker  (with  advice)  of  the  laws  ;  the  supreme  governor  of 
the  Church;  the  fountain  of  justice;  tlie  sole  source  of 
honour ;  the  person  to  whom  all  military,  all  naval,  all 
civil  service  is  rendered.  The  Sovereign  owns  very  large 
properties ;  receives  and  holds,  in  law,  the  entire  revenue 
oi'  the  State  ;  appoints  and  dismisses  Ministers  ;  makes 
treaties ;  pardons  crime,  or  abates  its  punishment ;  wages 
war,  or  concludes  peace  ;  summons  and  dissolves  the  Par- 
liament ;  exercises  these  vast  powers  for  the  most  part 
without  any  specified  restraint  of  law  ;  and  yet  enjoys,  in 
regard  to  these  and  every  other  function,  an  absolute 
immunitv  from  consequences.  There  is  no  provision  in 
the  law  of  tlie  United  Empire,  or  in  the  machinery  of  the 
Constitution,  for  calling  the  Sovereign  to  account ;  and 
only  in  one  solitary  and  improbable,  but  perfectly  defined 
ease — that  of  his  submitting  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Pope — is  he  deprived  by  Statute  of  the  Tlirone.  Setting 
aside  that  peculiar  exception,  the  offspring  of  a  necessity 
still  freshly  felt  when  it  was  made,  the  Constitution  might 
seem  to  be  founded  on  the  belief  of  a  real  infallibility  in 
its  head.  Less,  at  any  rate,  cannot  be  said  than  this, 
llegal  right  has,  since  the  llevolution  of  1688,  been  ex- 
pressly founded  upon  contract  ;  and  the  breach  of  that 
contract  destroys  the  title  to  the  all(>giance  of  the  subject. 
But  no  provision,  other  than  the  general  rule  of  hei-editary 

Q  2 


228 


KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 


succession,  is  made  to  meet  either  tliis  case,  or  any  other 
form  of  political  miscarriage  or  misdeed.  It  seems  as 
tliough  the  Genius  of  the  Nation  would  not  stain  its  lips 
by  so  much  as  the  mere  utterance  of  such  a  word;  nor 
can  we  put  this  state  of  facts  into  language  more  justly 
than  by  saying  that  the  Constitution  would  regard  the 
default  of  the  Monarch,  with  his  heirs,  as  the  chaos  of  the 
State,  and  would  simply  trust  to  the  inherent  energies  of 
the  several  orders  of  society  for  its  legal  reconstruction. 

31.  The  original  authorship  of  the  representative  system 
is  commonly  accorded  to  the  English  race.  More  clear 
and  indisputable  is  its  title  to  the  great  political  discovery 
of  Constitutional  Kingship.  And  a  very  great  discovery  it 
is.  ^^^lether  it  is  destined,  in  any  future  day,  to  minister 
in  its  integrity  to  the  needs  of  the  New  World,  it  may  be 
hard  to  say.  In  that  important  branch  of  its  iitility  which 
is  negative,  it  completely  serves  the  pui-poses  of  the  many 
strong  and  rising  Colonies  of  Great  ]3ritaiu,  and  saves  them 
all  the  perplexities  and  perils  attendant  upon  successions 
to  the  headship  of  the  Executive.  It  presents  to  them, 
as  it  does  to  us,  the  symbol  of  unity,  and  the  object  of 
all  our  political  veneration,  which  we  love  to  find  rather 
in  a  person,  than  in  an  abstract  entity,  like  the  State. 
But  the  Old  World,  at  any  rate,  still  is,  and  may  long 
continue,  to  constitute  the  living  centre  of  civilisation, 
and  to  hold  the  primacy  of  the  race ;  and  of  this  great 
society  the  several  members  approximate,  in  a  rapidly 
extending  series,  to  the  practice  and  idea  of  Constitutional 
Kingship.  The  chief  States  of  Christendofti,  with  only 
two  exceptions,  have,  with  more  or  less  distinctness, 
adopted  it.  Many  of  them,  both  great  and  small,  have 
thoroughly  assimilated  it  to  their  system.  The  autocracy 
of  llussia,  and  the  Kepublic  of  France,  each  of  them  con- 


KIX    BErOXD    SEA.  229 

genial  to  the  present  wants  of  the  respective  countries, 
may  yet,  hereafter,  gravitate  towards  the  principle,  which 
elsewhere  has  developed  so  large  an  attractive  power. 
Should  the  current,  that  has  prevailed  through  the  last 
half-century,  maintain  its  direction  and  its  strength,  an- 
other fifty  years  may  see  all  Europe  adhering  to  the  theory 
and  practice  of  this  beneficent  institution,  and  peaceably 
sailing  in  the  wake  of  Enghmd. 

32.  No  doubt,  if  tried  by  an  ideal  standard,  it  is  open 
to  criticism.  Aristotle  and  Plato,  nay,  Eacon,  and  perliaps 
Leibnitz,  would  have  scouted  it  as  a  scientific  abortion. 
Some  men  would  draw  disparaging  comparisons  between 
the  mediaeval  and  the  modern  King.  In  the  person  of  the 
first  was  normally  embodied  the  force  paramount  over  all 
others  in  the  country,  and  on  him  was  laid  a  weight  of 
responsibility  and  toil  so  tremendous,  that  his  function 
seems  always  to  border  upon  the  superhuman ;  that  his 
life  commonly  wore  out  before  the  natural  term;  and  tliat 
an  indescribable  majesty,  dignity,  and  interest  surround 
him  in  his  misfortunes,  nay,  almost  in  his  degradation  ;  as, 
for  instance,  amidst 

"  The  shrieks  of  death,  through  Berkeley's  roof  that  ring, 
Shrieks  of  an  agouising  King."  * 

33.  Eor  this  concentration  of  power,  toil,  and  liability, 
milder  realities  have  now  been  substituted ;  and  Minis- 
terial responsibility  comes  between  the  Monarch  and  every 
public  trial  and  necessity,  like  armour  between  the  flesh 
and  the  spear  that  would  seek  to  pierce  it ;  only  this  is  an 
armour  itself  also  fleshy,  at  once  living  and  impregnable. 
It  may  be  said,  by  an  adverse  critic,  that  the  Constitu- 
tional  Monarch   is   only   a   depositary  of  power,    as   an 

•  Gray's  «  Bard.' 


230  KIX    BEYOND    SEA. 

armoury  is  a  depository  of  arms ;  but  that  those  who 
wield  the  arms,  and  those  alone,  constitute  the  true  go- 
verning authority.  And  no  doubt  this  is  so  far  true, 
that  the  scheme  aims  at  associating  in  the  work  of  govern- 
ment with  the  head  of  the  State  the  persons  best  adajjted 
to  meet  the  wants  and  wishes  of  the  people,  under  the 
conditions  that  the  several  asf)ects  of  supreme  power 
shall  be  severally  allotted ;  dignity  and  visible  authority 
shall  lie  wholly  with  the  wearer  of  the  crown,  but  labour 
mainly,  and  responsibility  wholly,  with  its  servants.  From 
hence,  without  doubt,  it  follows  that  should  differences 
arise,  it  is  the  will  of  those  in  whose  minds  the  work  of 
government  is  elaborated,  that  in  the  last  resort  must 
prevail.  From  mere  labour,  power  may  be  severed ;  but 
not  from  labour  joined  with  responsibility.  This  capital 
and  vital  consequence  flows  out  of  the  principle  that  the 
political  action  of  the  Monarch  shall  everywhere  be  mediate 
and  conditional  upon  the  concurrence  of  confidential  ad- 
visers. It  is  impossible  to  reconcile  any,  even  the  smallest, 
abatement  of  this  doctrine,  with  tlie  perfect,  absolute 
immunity  of  the  Sovereign  from  consequences.  There  can 
be  in  England  no  disloyalty  more  gross,  as  to  its  effects, 
than  the  superstition  which  affects  to  assign  to  the  Sove- 
reign a  sei:)arate,  and,  so  far  as  separate,  transcendental 
sphere  of  political  action.  Anonymous  servility  has,  in- 
deed, in  these  last  days,  hinted  such  a  doctrine  ;  *  but  it  is 
no  more  practicable  to  make  it  thrive  in  England,  than  to 
rear  the  jungles  of  Bengal  on  Salisbury  Plain. 

34.  There  is,  indeed,  one  great  and  critical  act,  the  re- 
sponsibility for  which  falls  momentarily  or  provisionally  on 
the  Sovereign ;  it  is  the  dismissal  of  an  existing  Ministry, 


*  Quarterly  lieciew,  Apiil  1878.     Art.  I. 


Kix  hkyoxd  sea.  231 

and  the  appointment  of  a  new  one.  This  act  is  usually 
performed  with  the  aid  drawn  from  authentic  manifestations 
of  public  opinion,  mostly  such  as  are  obtained  through  the 
votes  or  conduct  of  the  House  of  Commons.  Since  the 
reign  of  George  III.  there  has  been  but  one  change  of 
Ministry  in  which  the  Monarch  acted  without  the  suppoi-t 
of  these  indications.  It  was  when  William  IV.,  in  1834, 
dismissed  the  Government  of  Lord  Melbourne,  which  was 
known  to  be  supported,  though  after  a  lukewarm  fashion, 
by  a  large  majority  of  the  existing  House  of  Commons. 
But  the  Iloyal  responsibility  was,  according  to  the  doctrine 
of  our  Constitution,  completely  taken  over,  ex  post  fado, 
by  Sir  Robert  Peel,  as  the  person  who  consented,  on  the 
call  of  the  King,  to  take  Lord  Melbourne's  office.  Thus, 
though  the  act  was  rash,  and  hard  to  justify,  the  doctrine 
of  personal  immunity  was  in  no  way  endangered.  And 
here  we  may  notice,  that  in  theoiy  an  absolute  personal 
immunity  implies  a  correlative  limitation  of  power,  greater 
than  is  always  found  in  practice.  It  can  hardly  be  said 
that  the  King's  initiative  left  to  Sir  11.  Peel  a  freedom 
perfectly  unimpaired.  And,  most  certainly,  it  was  a  very 
real  exercise  of  personal  power.  The  power  did  not 
suffice  for  its  end,  which  was  to  overset  the  Liberal  pre- 
dominance ;  but  it  very  nearly  sufficed.  Unconditionally 
entitled  to  dismiss  the  Ministers,  the  Sovereign  can,  of 
course,  choose  his  own  opportunity.  He  may  defy  the 
Parliament,  if  he  can  count  upon  the  people.  William  IV., 
in  the  year  1834,  had  neither  Parliament  nor  people  with 
him.  His  act  was  within  the  limits  of  the  Constitution, 
for  it  was  covered  by  tlie  responsibility  of  the  acctdiug 
Ministry.  But  it  reduced  the  Liberal  majority  from  a 
number  considerably  beyond  three  hundred  to  about 
thirty;  and  it  constituted  an  exceptional,  but  very  real 


232  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

and  large  action  on  the  politics  of  the  countiy,  by  the 
direct  will  of  the  King.  I  speak  of  the  immediate  effects. 
Its  eventual  result  may  have  been  different,  for  it  con- 
verted a  large  disjointed  mass  into  a  smaller  but  organised 
and  sufficient  force,  which  held  the  fortress  of  power  for 
the  six  years  1835-41.  On  this  view  it  may  be  said  that, 
if  the  Eoyal  intervention  anticipated  and  averted  decay 
from  natural  causes,  then  with  all  its  immediate  success, 
it  defeated  its  own  real  aim. 

35.  But  this  power  of  dismissing  a  Ministry  at  Avill,  large 
as  it  may  be  under  given  circumstances,  is  neither  the 
safest,  nor  the  only  power  which,  in  the  ordinary  course 
of  things,  falls  Constitutionally  to  the  personal  share  of 
the  wearer  of  the  crown.  He  is  entitled  on  all  subjects 
coming  before  the  Ministiy,  to  knowledge  and  opportuni- 
ties of  discussion,  unlimited  save  by  the  iron  necessities  of 
business.  Though  decisions  must  ultimately  conform  to 
the  sense  of  those  who  are  to  be  responsible  for  them,  yet 
their  business  is  to  inform  and  persuade  the  Sovereign, 
not  to  overrule  him.  "Were  it  possible  for  him,  within 
the  limits  of  human  time  and  strength,  to  enter  actively 
into  all  public  transactions,  he  would  be  fully  entitled  to 
do  so.  What  is  actually  submitted  is  supposed  to  be  the 
most  fruitful  and  important  part,  the  cream  of  affairs. 
In  the  discussion  of  them,  the  Monarch  has  more  than 
one  advantage  over  his  advisors.  He  is  permanent,  they 
are  fugitive ;  he  speaks  from  the  vantage-ground  of  a 
station  unapproachably  higher;  he  takes  a  calm  and 
leisurely  survey,  while  they  are  worried  with  the  prepa- 
ratory stages,  and  their  force  is  often  impaired  by  the 
pressure  of  countless  detail.  He  may  bo,  therefore,  a 
weighty  factor  in  all  deliberations  of  State.  Every  dis- 
covery of  a  blot,  that  the  studies  of  the  Sovereign  in  the 


KIN    liEYOND    SEA.  233 

tlomain  of  business  enable  him  to  make,  strengthens  his 
hands  and  enhances  liis  authority.  It  is  plain,  then,  that 
there  is  abundant  scope  for  mental  activity  to  be  at  work 
under  the  gorgeous  robes  of  Royalty. 

3G.  This  power  spontaneously  takes  the  fonu  of  inllu- 
ence  ;  and  the  amount  of  it  depends  on  a  variety  of  circum- 
stances ;  on  talent,  experience,  tact,  weight  of  character, 
steady,  untiring  industry,  and  habitual  presence  at  the 
scat  of  government.  In  proportion  as  any  of  these  might 
fail,  the  real  and  legitimate  influence  of  the  Mouarch  over 
the  course  of  affairs  would  diminish  ;  in  proportion  as  they 
attain  to  fuller  action,  it  would  increase.  It  is  a  moral, 
not  a  coercive,  influence.  It  operates  through  the  will 
and  reason  of  the  Ministry,  not  over  or  against  them.  It 
would  be  an  evil  and  a  perilous  day  for  the  Monarchy,  were 
any  prospective  possessor  of  the  Crown  to  assume  or  claim 
for  himself  final,  or  preponderating,  or  even  independent 
power,  in  any  one  department  of  the  State.  The  ideas 
and  practice  of  the  time  of  George  III.,  whose  will  in 
certain  matters  limited  the  action  of  the  Ministers,  cannot 
be  revived,  otherwise  than  by  what  would  be,  on  their 
part,  nothing  less  than  a  base  compliance,  a  shamehil 
subserviency,  dangerous  to  the  public  weal,  and,  in  the 
highest  degree,  disloyal  to  the  dynasty.  Because,  in  every 
free  State,  for  every  public  act,  some  one  must  be  respon- 
sible ;  and  the  question  is,  Who  shall  it  be  ?  The  British 
Constitution  answers :  The  Minister,  and  the  Minister 
exclusively.  That  he  may  be  responsible,  all  action  must 
bo  fully  shared  by  him.  Sole  action,  for  the  Sovereign, 
would  mean  undefended,  unprotected  action ;  the  armour 
of  irresponsibility  would  not  cover  the  whole  body  against 
sword  or  spear;  a  head  would  project  beyond  the  awning, 
aud  would  invite  a  sunstroke. 


234  KIN    BEYOXD    SEA. 

o7.  The  reader,  then,  will  clearly  see  that  there  is  no  dis- 
tinction more  vital  to  the  practice  of  the  British  Constitu- 
tion, or  to  a  right  judgment  upon  it,  than  the  distinction 
between  the  Sovereign  and  the  Crown.     The  Crown  has 
large  prerogatives,  endless  functions  essential  to  the  daily 
action,  and  even  the  life  of  the  State.     To  place  them  in 
the  hands  of  persons  who  should  be  mere  tools  in  a  Koyal 
will,  would  expose  those  powers  to  constant  unsupported 
collision  with  the  living  forces  of  the  nation,  and  to  a 
certain  and  irremediable  crash.     They  are  therefore  en- 
trusted to  men,  who  must  be  prepared  to  answer  for  the 
use  they  make  of  them.     This  ring  of  responsible  Minis- 
terial agency  forms   a  fence    around  the   person   of  the 
Sovereign,  which  has  thus  far  proved  impregnable  to  all 
assaults.     The  august  personage,  who  from  time  to  time 
may  rest  within  it,  and  who  may  possess  the  art  of  turning 
to  the  best  account  the  countless  resources  of  the  position, 
is  no  dumb  and  senseless  idol ;  but,  together  with  real  and 
very  large  means  of  influence  upon  policy,  enjoys  the 
undivided  reverence  which  a  great   people  feels  for  its 
head ;  and  is  likewise  the  first  and  by  far  the  weightiest 
among  the  forces,  which  greatly  mould,  by  example  and 
legitimate  authority,  the  manners,  nay  the  morals,  of  a 
powerful  aristocracy  and  a  wealthy  and  highly  trained 
society.     The  social  influence  of  a  Sovereign,  even  if  it 
stood  alone,  would  be  an  enormous  attribute.    The  English 
people  are  not  believers  in  equality ;  they  do  not,  with  the 
famous  Declaration  of  July  4th,  1776,  think  it  to  be  a  self- 
evident  truth  that  all  men  are  born  equal.     They  hold 
rather  the  reverse  of  that  ])i'oposition.     At  any  rate,  in 
practice,  they  are  what  I  may  call  determined  iue(piali- 
tarians ;  nay,  in  some  cases,   even  without  knowing  it. 
Tlicir  natural  tendency,   from  the  very  base  of  British 


KIN    BEYOXD    SKA..  23.') 

society,  tmd  tliroiij;li  all  its  strongly  built  p:radations,  is  to 
look  upwards:  they  are  not  apt  to  "untune  degree." 
The  Sovereign  is  the  highest  height  of  the  system ;  is,  in 
that  system,  like  Jupiter  among  the  Roman  gods,  first 
without  a  second. 

"  Neo  viget  quicquam  simile  aut  secundum."  * 

Kot,  like  Mont  Blanc,  -with  rivals  in  his  neighbourhood; 
but  like  Ararat  or  Etna,  towering  alone  and  unapproach- 
able. The  step  downward  from  the  King  to  the  second 
person  in  the  realm  is  not  like  that  from  the  second  to  the 
third  :  it  is  more  even  than  a  stride,  for  it  traverses  a  gulf. 
It  is  the  wisdom  of  the  British  Constitution  to  lodge  the 
personality  of  its  chief  so  high,  that  none;  shall  under  any 
circumstances  be  tempted  to  vie,  no,  nor  dream  of  vicing, 
with  it.  The  office,  however,  is  not  confused,  though  it 
is  associated,  with  the  person ;  and  the  elevation  of 
official  dignity  in  the  Monarch  of  these  realms  has  now  for 
a  testing  period  worked  well,  in  conjunction  with  the 
limitation  of  merely  personal  power. 

38.  In  the  face  of  the  country,  the  Sovereign  and  the 
Ministers  are  an  absolute  unity.  The  one  may  concede  to 
the  other  ;  hut  the  limit  of  concessions  by  the  Sovereign  is 
at  the  point  where  he  becomes  willing  to  try  the  experiment 
of  changing  his  Government;  and  the  limit  of  concession  by 
the  Ministers  is  at  the  point  where  they  become  unwilling 
to  bear,  what  in  all  circumstances  they  must  bear  while 
they  remain  Ministers,  the  untlivided  responsibility  of  all 
that  is  done  in  the  Crown's  name.  But  it  is  not  with  the 
Sovereign  only  that  the  Ministry  must  be  welded  into 
identity.     It  has  a  relation   to  sustain  to  the  House  of 


*  Hor.  OJ.  I.  xii.  18. 


236  KIN    BEYOXD    SEA. 

Lords ;  ■vrhicli  need  not,  however,  be  one  of  entire  unity, 
for  the  House  of  Lords,  though  a  great  power  in  the 
State,  and  able  to  cause  great  embarrassment  to  an  Ad- 
ministration, is  not  able  by  a  vote  to  doom  it  to  capital 
punishment.  Only  for  fifteen  years,  out  of  the  last  fifty, 
has  the  Ministry  of  the  day  possessed  the  confidence  of 
the  House  of  Lords.  On  the  confidence  of  the  House  of 
Commons  it  is  immediately  and  vitally  dependent.  This 
confidence  it  must  always  possess,  either  absolutely  from 
identity  of  political  colour,  or  relatively  and  conditionally. 
This  last  case  arises  when  an  accidental  dislocation  of  the 
majority  in  the  Chamber  has  piit  the  machine  for  the 
moment  out  of  gear,  and  the  uiisafe  experiment  of  a  sort 
of  provisional  government,  doomed  on  the  one  hand  to  be 
feeble,  or  tempted  on  the  other  to  be  dishonest,  is  tried ; 
much  as  the  Roman  Conclave  has  sometimes  been  satisfied 
with  a  provisional  Pope,  deemed  likely  to  live  for  the  time 
necessary  to  reunite  the  fractions  of  the  prevailing  party. 
39.  I  have  said  that  the  Cabinet  is  essentially  the  regu- 
lator of  the  relations  between  King,  Lords,  and  Commons ; 
exercising  functionally  the  powers  of  the  first,  and  incor- 
porated, in  the  persons  of  its  members,  with  the  second 
and  the  third.  It  is,  therefore,  itself  a  great  power. 
But  let  no  one  suppose  it  is  the  greatest.  In  a  balance 
nicely  poised,  a  small  weight  may  turn  the  scale  ;  and  the 
helm  that  directs  the  ship  is  not  stronger  than  the  ship. 
It  is  a  cardinal  axiom  of  the  modern  British  Constitution, 
that  the  House  of  Commons  is  the  greatest  of  the  powers 
of  the  State.  It  might,  by  a  base  subserviency,  fling  itself 
at  the  feet  of  a  Monarch  or  a  Minister ;  it  might,  in  a 
season  of  exhaustion,  allow  the  slow  persistence  of  the 
Lords,  ever  eyeing  it  as  Lancelot  Avas  eyed  by  Modred,  to 
invade  its  just  province  by  baffling  its  action  at  some  time 


KIN    BEYOND    SEA.  237 

propitious  for  the  purpose.  But  no  Constitution  can  nny- 
whcre  keep  either  Sovereign,  or  Assembly,  or  nation,  true 
to  its  trust  and  to  itself.  All  that  can  be  done  has  been 
done.  The  Commons  are  armed  Avith  ample  powers  of 
self-defence.  If  they  use  their  powers  properly,  they  can 
only  be  mastered  by  a  recurrence  to  the  people,  and  the 
•way  in  which  the  appeal  can  succeed  is  by  the  choice  of 
another  House  of  Commons  more  agreeable  to  the  national 
temper.  Thus  the  sole  appeal  from  the  verdict  of  the 
House  is  a  rightful  appeal  to  those  from  whom  it  received 
its  commission. 

40.  This  superiority  in  power  among  the  great  State 
forces  was,  in  truth,  established  even  before  the  House  of 
Commons  became  what  it  now  is,  representative  of  the 
people  throughout  its  entire  area.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
century,  a  large  part  of  its  members  virtually  received  their 
mandate  from  members  of  the  Peerage,  or  from  the  Crown, 
or  by  the  direct  action  of  money  on  a  mere  handful  of 
individuals,  or,  as  in  Scotland  for  example,  from  constitu- 
encies whose  limited  numbers  and  upper-class  sympatbies 
usually  shut  out  popular  influences.  A  real  supremacy 
belonged  to  the  House  as  a  whole;  but  the  forces  of  which 
it  was  compounded  were  not  all  deiived  from  the  people, 
and  the  aristocratic  power  had  found  out  the  secret  of 
asserting  itself  within  the  walls  of  the  popular  chamber, 
in  the  dress  and  through  the  voices  of  its  members.  Many 
persons  of  gravity  and  weight  saw  great  danger  in  a  mea- 
sure of  change  like  the  first  Reform  Act,  which  left  it  to 
the  Lords  to  assert  themselves,  thereafter,  by  an  external 
force,  instead  of  through  a  share  in  the  internal  composi- 
tion of  a  body  so  formidable.  ]3ut  the  result  proved  that 
they  were  sufficiently  to  exercise,  through  the  popular 
"will  and  choice,  the  power  which  they  had  formerly  put 


238  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

in  action  without  its  sanction,  though  within  its  proper 
precinct  and  Avith  its  title  falsely  inscribed. 

41.  The  House  of  Commons  is  superior,  and  by  far 
superior,  in  the  force  of  its  political  attributes,  to  any  other 
single  power  in  the  State.  But  it  is  watched ;  it  is  criticised  ; 
it  is  hemmed  in  and  about  by  a  multitude  of  other  forces ; 
the  force,  first  of  all,  of  the  House  of  Lords,  the  force  of 
opinion  from  day  to  day,  particularly  of  the  highly  anti- 
popular  opinion  of  the  leisured  men  of  the  metropolis,  who, 
seated  close  to  the  scene  of  action,  wield  an  influence 
greatly  in  excess  of  their  just  claims ;  the  force  of  the 
classes  and  professions ;  the  just  and  useful  force  of  the 
local  authorities  in  their  various  orders  and  places.  Never 
was  the  great  problem  more  securely  solved,  wliich  re- 
cognises the  necessity  of  a  paramount  power  in  the  body 
politic  to  enable  it  to  move,  but  requires  for  it  a  depository 
such  that  it  shall  be  safe  against  invasion,  and  yet  inhibited 
from  aggression. 

42.  The  old  theories  of  a  mixed  government,  and  of  the 
three  powers,  coming  down  from  the  age  of  Cicero,  when 
set  by  the  side  of  the  living  British  Constitution,  are  cold, 
crude,  and  insufficient  to  a  degi'ee  that  makes  them  decep- 
tive. Take  them,  for  example,  as  represented,  fairly 
enough,  by  Voltaire  :  the  picture  drawn  by  him  is  for  us 
nothing  but  a  puzzle  : — 

"  Aux  niurs  de  Vestminster  on  voit  paraitre  ensemble 
Trois  ]iouvoirs  etonne's  dii  numd  qui  los  rassrmble, 
Lt's  depufes  du  poiiple,  los  grands,  et  le  Rui, 
Diviscs  d'iiitcrct,  reuiiis  par  la  Loi."  * 

There  is  here  lacking  an  amalgam,  a  reconciling  power, 
what  may  be  called  a  clearing-house  of  political  forces, 

*  Henriade,  I, 


KIN    BETOXD    SEA.  230 

Trhich  shall  draw  into  itself  eveiy thing,  and  shall  balance 
and  adjust  everything,  and  ascertaining  the  nett  result, 
let  it  pass  on  freely  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  pui-poscs 
of  the  great  social  union.  Like  a  stout  buffer-spring,  it 
receives  all  shocks,  and  vrithin  it  their  opposing  elements 
neutralise  one  another.  This  is  the  function  of  the  British 
Cabinet.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  curious  formation  in  the 
political  world  of  modern  times,  not  for  its  dignity,  but 
for  its  subtlety,  its  elasticity,  and  its  many-sided  diversity 
of  power.  It  is  the  complement  of  the  entire  sj'stem  ;  a 
system  which  appears  to  want  nothing  but  a  thorough 
loyalty  in  the  persons  composing  its  several  parts,  with  a 
reasonable  intelligence,  to  insure  its  bearing,  without  fatal 
damage,  the  wear  and  tear  of  ages  yet  to  come. 

43.  It  has  taken  more  than  a  couple  of  centuries  to  bring 
the  British  Cabinet  to  its  present  accuracy  and  fulness  of 
development;  for  the  first  rudiments  of  it  may  sufficiently 
be  discerned  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I.  Under  Charles  II. 
it  had  fairly  started  from  its  embryo  ;  and  the  name  is 
found  both  in  Clarendon  and  in  the  Diary  of  Pepys.*'  It 
was  for  a  long  time  without  a  ^Ministerial  head  ;  the  King 
was  the  head.  AVhile  this  arrangement  suT)sisted,  Consti- 
tutional government  could  be  but  half  established.  Of  the 
numerous  titles  of  the  Kevolution  of  1688  to  respect,  not 
the  least  remarkable  is  this,  that  the  great  families  of  the 
country,  and  great  powers  of  the  State,  made  no  effort,  as 
they  might  have  done,  in  the  hour  of  its  weakness,  to 
aggrandise  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  CroAvn. 
Nevertheless,  for  various  reasons,  and  among  them  because 
of  the  foreign  origin,  and  absences  from  time  to  time,  of 
several  Sovereigns,  the  course  of  events  tended  to   give 


Vol.  V.  pp.  94,  95.     Ed.  London,  1877. 


240  KIN^    BEYOND    SEA. 

force  to  the  organs  of  Government  actually  on  the  spot, 
and  thus  to  consolidate,  and  also  to  uplift,  this  as  yet  novel 
creation.  So  late,  however,  as  the  impeachment  of  Sir 
Robert  Walpole,  his  friends  thought  it  expedient  to  urge 
on  his  behalf,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  he  had  never 
presumed  to  constitute  himself  a  Prime  Minister. 

44.  The  breaking  down  of  the  great  offices  of  State  by 
throwing  them  into  commission,  and  last  among  them  of 
the  Lord  High  Treasurership  aftjr  the  time  of  Harley, 
Earl  of  Oxford,  tended,  and  may  probably  have  been 
meant,  to  prevent  or  retard  the  formation  of  a  recognised 
Chiefship  in  the  Ministry  ;  which  even  now  we  have  not 
learned  to  designate  by  a  true  English  word,  though  the 
use  of  the  imported  phrase  "  Premier"  is  at  least  as  old 
as  the  poetry  of  Burns.  Nor  can  anything  be  more 
curiously  characteristic  of  the  political  genius  of  the 
people,  than  the  present  position  of  this  most  important 
official  personage.  Departmentally,  he  is  no  more  than 
the  first  named  of  five  persons,  by  whom  jointly  the 
powers  of  the  Lord  Treasurership  are  taken  to  be  exercised ; 
he  is  not  their  master,  or,  otherwise  than  by  mere  priority, 
their  head  :  and  he  has  no  special  function  or  prerogative 
under  the  formal  constitution  of  the  ofiice.  He  has  no 
official  rank,  except  that  of  Privy  Councillor.  Eight 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  including  five  Secretaries  of 
State,  and  several  other  members  of  the  Government,  take 
official  precedence  of  him.  His  rights  and  duties  as  head 
of  the  Administration  are  nowhere  recorded.  He  is  almost, 
if  not  altogether,  unknown  to  the  Statute  Law. 

45.  Kor  is  the  position  of  the  body,  over  which  he  pre- 
sides, less  singular  tlian  his  own.  The  Cabinet  wields,  with 
partial  exceptions,  the  powers  of  the  Privy  Council,  besides 
having  a  ritanding  ground  in  relation  to  the  personal  will 


KIN    BEYOND    SKA.  211 

of  the  Sovereign,  far  beyond  what  the  Privy  Council  ever 
lield  or  chiimcd.  Yet  it  has  no  connection  Avith  the  Privy 
Council,  except  that  every  one,  on  first  becoming  a  member 
of  the  Cabinet,  is,  if  not  belonging  to  it  already,  sworn  a 
member  of  that  body.  There  are  other  sections  of  the 
Privy  Council,  forming  regular  Committees  for  Education 
and  for  Trade.  But  the  Cabinet  has  not  even  this  degree 
of  formal  sanction,  to  sustain  its  existence.  It  lives  and  acts 
simply  by  understanding,  without  a  single  line  of  written 
law  or  constitution  to  determine  its  relations  to  the 
Monarch,  or  to  the  Pazdiament,  or  to  the  nation  ;  or  the 
relations  of  its  members  to  one  another,  or  to  their  head. 
It  sits  in  the  closest  secrecy.  There  is  no  record  of  its 
proceedings,  nor  is  there  any  one  to  hear  them,  except 
ixpon  the  very  rare  occasions  when  some  important  func- 
tionary, for  the  most  part  military  or  legal,  is  introduced, 
pro  hac  vice,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  to  it  necessary 
information. 

46.  Every  one  of  its  members  acts  in  no  less  than  thi'ee 
capacities  :  as  administrator  of  a  department  of  State  ;  as 
member  of  a  legislative  chamber ;  and  as  a  confidential 
adviser  of  the  Crown.  Two  at  least  of  them  add  to  those 
three  characters  a  fourth  ;  for  in  each  House  of  Parlia- 
ment it  is  indispensable  that  one  of  the  principal  Ministers 
should  be  what  is  termed  its  Leader.  This  is  an  office  the 
most  indefinite  of  all,  but  not  the  least  important.  With 
very  little  of  defined  prerogative,  the  Leader  suggests, 
and  in  a  great  degree  fixes,  the  course  of  all  principal 
nuittcrs  of  business,  supervises  and  keeps  in  harmony  the 
action  of  his  colleagues,  takes  the  initiative  in  matters  of 
leremonial  procedure,  and  advises  the  House  in  every 
difficulty  as  it  arises.  The  first  of  these,  which  would  be 
of   but  secondary   consequence   where  the  assembly    had 

I.  £ 


242  KIN    BEYOND    SEA. 

time  enough  for  all  its  duties,  is  of  the  utmost  weight  in 
our  overcharged  House  of  Commons,  where,  notwith- 
standing all  its  energy  and  all  its  diligence,  for  one  thing 
of  consequence  that  is  done,  five  or  ten  are  despairingly- 
postponed.  The  overweight,  again,  of  the  House  of 
Commons  is  apt,  other  things  being  equal,  to  bring  its 
Leader  inconveniently  near  in  power  to  a  Prime  Minister 
who  is  a  Peer.  He  can  play  ofi"  the  House  of  Commons 
against  his  chief:  and  instances  might  be  cited,  though 
they  are  happily  most  rare,  when  he  has  served  him  very 
ugly  tricks. 

47.  The  nicest  of  all  the  adjustments  involved  in  the 
working  of  the  British  Government  is  that  which  deter- 
mines, without  formally  defining,  the  internal  relations  of 
the  Cabinet.  On  the  one  hand,  while  each  Minister  is  an 
adviser  of  the  Crown,  the  Cabinet  is  an  unity,  and  none 
of  its  members  can  advise  as  an  individual,  without,  or  in 
opposition  actual  or  presumed  to,  his  colleagues.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  business  of  the  State  is  a  hundredfold 
too  great  in  volume  to  allow  of  the  actual  passing  of  the 
whole  under  the  view  of  the  collected  Ministry.  It  is 
therefore  a  prime  office  of  discretion  for  each  Minister  to 
settle  what  are  the  departmental  acts  in  which  he  can 
presume  the  concurrence  of  his  colleagues,  and  in  what 
more  delicate,  or  weighty,  or  peculiar  cases,  he  must 
positively  ascertain  it.  So  much  for  the  relation  of  each 
Minister  to  the  Cabinet;  but  here  we  touch  the  point 
which  involves  another  relation,  perhaps  the  least  known 
of  all,  his  relation  to  its  head. 

48.  The  head  of  the  British  Government  is  not  a  Grand 
Vizier.  He  has  no  powers,  properly  so  called,  over  his 
colleagues :  on  the  rare  occasions,  Avhen  a  Cabinet  deter- 
mines its  course  by  the  votes  of  its  members,  his  vote 


KIN    BKYOXn    SEA.  21:^ 

counts  only  as  one  of  theirs.  But  they  are  appointed  and 
dismissed  by  the  Sovereign  on  his  advice.  In  a  perfectly 
organised  administration,  such  for  example  as  was  that  of 
Sir  Robci't  Peel  in  1841-6,  nothing  of  groat  importance 
is  matured,  or  would  even  be  projected,  in  any  depart- 
ment without  his  personal  cognisance  ;  and  any  weiglity 
business  would  commonly  go  to  him  before  being  sub- 
mitted to  the  Cabinet.  He  reports  to  the  Sovereign  its 
proceedings,  and  lie  also  has  many  audiences  of  the  august 
occupant  of  tlie  Throne.  He  is  bound,  in  these  reports 
and  audiences,  not  to  counterwork  the  Cabinet ;  not  to 
divide  it ;  not  to  undermine  the  position  of  any  of  his 
coHeagucs  in  the  Eoyal  favour.  If  he  departs  in  any 
degree  from  strict  adherence  to  these  rules,  and  uses  his 
gi'eat  opportunities  to  increase  his  own  influence,  or  pur- 
sue aims  not  shared  by  his  colleagues,  then,  unless  he  is 
prepared  to  advise  their  dismissal,  he  not  only  departs 
from  rule,  but  commits  an  act  of  treachery  and  baseness. 
As  the  Cabinet  stands  between  the  Sovereign  and  the 
Parliament,  and  is  bound  to  be  loyal  to  both,  so  he  stands 
between  his  colleagues  and  the  Sovereign,  and  is  bound 
to  be  loyal  to  both. 

49.  As  a  rule,  the  resignation  of  the  First  Minister,  as 
if  removing  the  bond  of  cohesion  in  the  Cabinet,  has  the 
effect  of  dissolving  it.  A  conspicuous  instance  of  this  was 
furnished  by  Sir  llobert  Peel  in  1846  ;  when  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  Administration,  after  it  had  carried  the  repeal 
of  the  Com  Laws,  was  understood  to  be  due  not  so  much 
to  a  united  deliberation  and  decision  as  to  his  initiative. 
The  resignation  of  any  other  Minister  only  creates  a 
vacancy.  In  certain  circumstances,  the  balance  of  forces 
may  be  so  delicate  and  susceptible  that  a  single  resigna- 
tion will  break  up  the  Government ;  but  what  is  the  rule 

E  2 


244  KIN    BKYOND    SKX.   ' 

in  the  one  case  is  the  rare  exception  in  the  other.  Tlie 
Prime  Minister  has  no  title  to  override  any  one  of  liis 
colleagues  in  any  one  of  the  departments.  So  far  as  he 
governs  them,  unless  it  is  done  by  trick,  which  is  not  to 
be  supposed,  he  governs  them  by  influence  only.  But 
upon  the  whole,  nowhere  in  the  wide  world  does  so  great 
a  substance  cast  so  small  a  shadow ;  nowhere  is  there  a 
man  who  has  so  much  power,  with  so  little  to  show  for  it 
in  the  way  of  formal  title  or  prerogative. 

50.  The  slight  record  that  has  here  been  traced  may 
convey  but  a  faint  idea  of  an  unique  creation.  And,  slight 
as  it  is,  I  believe  it  tells  more  than,  excc]it  in  the 
school  of  British  practice,  is  elsewhere  to  be  learned  of 
a  machine  so  subtly  balanced,  that  it  seems  as  though  it 
were  m.oved  by  something  not  less  delicate  and  slight 
than  the  mainspring  of  a  watch.  It  has  not  been  the 
oft'spring  of  the  thought  of  man.  The  Cabinet,  and  all 
the  present  relations  of  the  Constitutional  powers  in  this 
country,  have  grown  into  their  present  dimensions,  and 
settled  into  their  present  places,  not  as  the  fruit  of  a 
philosophy,  not  in  the  effort  to  give  effect  to  an  abstract 
princi])le  ;  but  by  the  silent  action  of  forces,  invisible  and 
insensible,  the  stz'ucture  has  come  up  into  the  view  of  all 
the  world.  It  is,  perhaps,  the  most  conspicuous  object  on 
the  Avide  political  horizon ;  but  it  has  thus  risen,  without 
noise,  like  the  temple  of  Jerusalem. 

"No  woikmnn  steel,  no  ponderous  hammers  runir ; 
lAkc  soiiio  tall  pahu  the  stately  fabric  sprung."  * 

51.  "When  men  repeat  the  proverb  which  teaches  us  that 
"  marriages  are  made  in  heaven,"  what  they  mean  is  that, 


*  Heber's  '  Prtlestine.'     Tho  w.ord    "  stately  "  was   in   later  pdiiious 
altered  by  the  author  to  "  iioi.-.eli.'ss." 


KIN     ]ii:VnND    SKA.  245 

in    tlio    most    I'uiuLuueutal    of   all   social    opei'atiuns,    tlm 
building  up   of  the   family,   the    issues   involved   in   the 
nuptial  contract,  lie  beyond  the  best  exercise  of  human 
thought,  and  the  unseen  forces  of  providential  government 
make  good  the  defect  in  our  imperfect  capacity.     Even  so 
would  it  seem  to  have  been  in  that  curious  marriage  of 
competing  influences  and  powers,  which  brings  about  the 
composite  hannony  of  the  British  Constitution.     More,  it 
must  be  admitted,  than  any  other,  it  leaves   open  doors 
which   lead    into   blind   alleys;    for   it   presumes,    more 
boldly  than  any  other,  the  good  sense  and  good  faith  of 
those  who  work  it.     If,  unhappily,  these  personages  meet 
together,  on  the   great  arena  of  a  nation's   fortunes,    as 
jockeys  meet  upon  a  racecourse,  each  to  urge  to  the  utter- 
most, as  against  the  others,   the  power  of  the  animal  he 
rides,  or  as  counsel  in  a  court,  each  to  procure  the  victory 
of  his  client,   without  respect   to   any  other  interest   or 
right ;  then  this   boasted  Constitution    of  ours  is  neitlier 
more  nor  less  than  a  heap  of  absurdities.     The  undoubted 
couipetcucy  of    each  reaches    even   to    the   paralysis    or 
destruction    of    the    rest.      The    House    of    Commons   is 
entitled  to  refuse  every  shilling  of  the  Supplies.     That 
House,  and  also  the  House  of  Lords,  is  entitled  to  refuse 
its  assent  to   every  13111  presented  to  it.     The  Crown  is 
entitled  to  make  a  thousand  Peers  to-day  and  as  many- 
to-morrow  :    it   may  dissolve    all   and    every  Parliament 
before   it   proceeds   to   business;    may  pardon   the    most 
atrocious  crimes;  rnay  declare  war  against  all  the  world; 
may  conclude  treaties  involving  unlimited  responsibilities, 
and    even   vast   expenditure,    without   the    consent,    nay 
without  the  knowledge,  of  Parliament,  and  this  not  merely 
in  support  or  in  development,  but  in  reversal,  of  policy 
already  known  to   and   sanctioned  by   the   n.ition.      13ut 


246  KIX    BEYOND    SEA, 

the  assumption  is  that  tlie  depositaries  of  power  wili 
all  respect  one  another ;  will  evince  a  consciousness  that 
they  are  working  in  a  common  interest  for  a  common 
end ;  that  they  will  be  possessed,  together  with  not 
less  than  an  average  intelligence,  of  not  less  than  an 
average  sense  of  equity  and  of  the  public  interest  and 
rights.  When  these  reasonable  expectations  fail,  then, 
it  must  be  admitted,  the  British  Constitution  will  be  in 
danger. 

52.  Apart  from  such  contingencies,  the  offspring  only 
of  folly  or  of  crime,  this  Constitution  is  peculiarly  liable 
to  subtle  change.  Not  only  in  the  long-run,  as  mtm 
changes  between  youth  and  age,  but  also,  like  the  human 
body,  with  a  quotidian  life,  a  periodical  recurrence  of 
ebbing  and  flowing  tides.  Its  old  particles  daily  run 
to  waste,  and  give  place  to  new.  What  is  hoped  among 
us  is,  that  which  has  usually  been  found,  that  evils 
will  become  palpable  before  they  have  grown  to  be 
intolerable. 

53.  There  cannot,  for  example,  be  much  doubt  among 
careful  observers  that  the  great  conservator  of  liberty  in 
all  former  times,  namely,  the  confinement  of  the  power  of 
the  purse  to  the  popular  chamber,  has  been  lamentably 
weakened  in  its  efficiency  of  late  years;  weakened  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  weakened  by  the  House 
of  Commons.  It  might  indeed  be  contended  that  the 
House  of  Commons  of  the  i^rcscnt  epoch  does  far  more  to 
increase  the  aggregate  of  public  charge  than  to  reduce 
it.  It  might  even  be  a  question  whether  the  public 
would  take  benefit  if  the  House  were  either  eutrustcid 
annually  with  a  great  part  of  the  initiative,  so  as  to  be 
really  responsible  to  the  people  for  the  spending  of  their 
money  ;  or  else  were  excluded  from  part  at  least  of  its 


KIN    BEYOND    SEA.  247 

direct  action  upon  expenditure,  intrusting  to  the  executive 
the  application  of  given  sums  which  that  executive  should 
have  no  legal  power  to  exceed. 

54.  Meantime,  we  of  this  island  are  not  great  politiial 
philosoj^hers ;  and  we  contend  with  an  earnest,  but  dis- 
proportioned,  vehemence  about  changes  which  are  palpable, 
Buch  as  the  extension  of  the  suffrage,  or  the  redistribution 
of  Parliamentary  seats,  neglecting  wholly  other  processes 
of  change  which  work  beneath  the  surface,  and  in  the  dark, 
but  which  are  even  more  fertile  of  great  organic  results. 
The  modem  English  character  reflects  the  English  Con- 
stitution in  this,  that  it  abounds  in  paradox ;  that  it  pos- 
sesses every  strength,  but  holds  it  tainted  with  eveiy 
weakness;  that  it  seems  alternately  both  to  rise  above 
and  to  fall  below  the  standard  of  average  humanity ;  that 
there  is  no  allegation  of  praise  or  blame  which,  in  some 
one  of  the  aspects  of  its  many-sided  formation,  it  docs  not 
deserve ;  that  only  in  the  midst  of  much  default,  and  much 
transgression,  the  people  of  this  United  Kingdom  either 
have  heretofore  established,  or  will  hereafter  establish, 
their  title  to  be  reckoned  among  the  children  of  men,  for 
the  eldest  born  of  an  imperial  race. 

55.  In  this  imperfect  survey,  I  have  carefully  avoided  aU 
reference  to  the  politics  of  the  day  and  to  particular  topics, 
recently  opened,  which  may  have  undergone  a  great  de- 
velopment even  before  these  lines  appear  in  print  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Such  reference  would,  without 
any  countervailing  advantage,  have  lowered  the  strain  of 
these  remarks,  and  would  have  complicated  with  painful 
considerations  a  statement  essentially  impartial  and  genera] 
in  its  scope. 

56.  For  the  yet  weightier  reason  of  incompetency,  I 
have  avoided  the  topics  of  chief  present  interest  in  America, 


248  KIN    BEYOJfn    SEA. 

incluclinG:  tliat  proposal  to  tamper  with  the  true  monetary 
creed  which  (as  we  shoukl  say)  the  Tem])ter  lately  pre- 
sented to  the  nation  in  the  Silver  Bill.  But  I  will  not 
close  this  paper  without  recording  my  conviction  that  the 
great  acts,  and  the  great  forbearances,  which  immediately 
followed  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  form  a  group  which 
wall  ever  be  a  noble  object,  in  bis  political  retrospect,  to 
the  impartial  historian ;  and  tliat,  proceeding  as  they  did 
from  the  free  choice  and  conviction  of  the  people,  and 
founded  as  they  were  on  the  very  principles  of  which  the 
multitude  is  supposed  to  be  least  tolerant,  they  have, 
in  doing  honour  to  the  United  States,  also  rendered  a 
splendid  ser^Hce  to  the  general  cause  of  popular  govern- 
ment throughout  the  world. '^' 


*  [In  reply  to  the  intended  work  of  ]\Ir.  Adams  on  the  Constitution  of 
the  Uniteil  States,  Mr.  Livingstone,  under  the  title  of  a  Colonist  of  New 
Jersey,  j)iil)iished  an  Exauiination  of  the  British  Constitution,  and  com- 
pared it  iinf.ivourably  as  it  had  been  exhibited  by  Adams,  and  by 
Dfeliilmo,  with  the  institutions  of  his  own  country.  In  this  work,  of 
which  1  have  a  Fremh  translation  (London  and  Paris,  1789),  there  is 
not  the  smallest  inkling  of  the  action  of  our  political  mechanism,  such 
as  I  have  endeavoured  to  describe  it.  On  this  subject  I  noi-il  hardly 
refer  the  reader  to  tlie  valuable  work  of  Mr.  Bagehot,  entitled  'The 
En'j;lish  Constitution,'  or  to  the  Constitutional  History  of  Sir  T 
p:rskiue  May.— W.  E.  G.,  December  187a.] 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

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